Between Angels and Demons
by ObakeAri
Summary: Demons do not feel. They do not love. It is simply not possible for them. Instead, they are assigned a mate at birth, and Sebastian Michaelis is no exception to the rule. But he will not love her, he cannot love her. A demon who loves their mate endangers only themselves, what's worse is that Sebastian's mate is no demon. Sebastian/OC (rating may change)
1. Artemis Grace

Okay, okay, I KNOW I keep saying that I'm going to finish a story before I start another one but I really couldn't help myself (sorry Lydia!)

Also, as some of you may remember when I first joined I started a fic "Death's Shadow Walks" that some of you really liked but I later took it down because I didn't have anywhere to go with it at the time and I stepped away from it for so long that I didn't even remember what I wanted to do with it. And then my last computer crashed and I lost the file *cry*. So, for those of you who liked that story, I'm sorry, but hopefully this BRAND NEW IDEA will suffice!

This is mostly based on the anime. There will be manga references too, but I'm going with the whole "Ciel turned into a demon because Claude is a bitch and now Sebastian is stuck with him for all eternity" plot twist for my story because it'll make a hell of a lot more sense. And to the Ciel fans out there, I am sorry he is going to be such a bitch the first few chapters, but I promise he gets better-likable even! (I really don't like Ciel, I'm sorry. Speaking of which, do we all want to talk about how they made him A GIRL IN THE LIVE ACTION MOVIE? TROLOLOLOLOLOL)

Also f*** time travel. I've been watching way too much Doctor Who (and sorry for my language…it's gotten kind of vulgar lately. If it gets too bad I'll change the rating for all you little peeps out there who really shouldn't be watching gothic anime about demons who suck your soul away anyway. :P)

ALSO! I'd like to give a shout out to BlueMoonBrightStars for inspiring me to write this! Her story, "A Demon's Mate" is killer and I loved the concept of it so much I kind of wrote my own little twist to her ideas (I couldn't help myself, I'm sorry!). Of course, this story is of my own concoction and really the only thing I stole from her brain was the idea of demon's having a mate and Sebastian's mate not being…well…a demon…you'll see where I'm going with this by the end of the chapter so I won't spoil anything else.

But really, check out this kid's story. Her writing style puts my novel to shame and I love it! :) (seriously, go to my profile and my favorite's tab and read it. READ IT NOW I SAY SO YOU CAN CRY OVER THE FEELS I KNOW SHE IS GOING TO EXPLODE FROM WITHIN US ALL!)

Okay, enough of my banter. Sorry, I just haven't been this emotionally invested in a fan fiction since Badpenny232's "Lost Destiny and Hidden Pasts" (It's a Hobbit story. READ THAT TOO!) and I have a feeling I know where BlueMoon is going and it makes me want to curl up into fetal position and cry because it's so good.

Oh, and yes, those "The Fault in Our Stars" references were intentional. In every way you can imagine. I just finished that book and I am SOBBING.

Okay, I'm promise I'm done! I'd say to look forward for more but you all know how I am about updating (yay college!) so just read and review and I hope you like!

ENJOI

* * *

**United States: Year 2014**

**Artie**

Another stressful day, that's what this was. I just knew it as soon as the alarm, a blaring blow horn noise my phone maliciously mimicked, went off beside me. Part of me just wanted to sleep through it, however the other, much more logical half of my brain reminded me that if I didn't shut my alarm off, my roommate certainly would, and that is not what I wanted.

Ugh. I'm twenty-one years old and I still live in the dorms. If only I had been able to afford that damn lease on the apartment I wanted to rent. On the bright side, our tiny dorm room is actually _on_ campus meaning that I can wake up ten minutes before class starts and still make it on time.

Downside (which is a _severe_ downside might I add) is that the dorms do not allow alcohol. I'm legal, and yet I can't have a simple glass of wine after a long and stressful day.

Granted, with an eighteen-year-old freshman who thinks binge-drinking is the only way to spend your weekend as a roommate, I don't think I'd even want a case of beer in my fridge.

Okay, make that two downsides to being stuck in the dorms. But no matter, once I graduate I'll be able to afford my own place. I won't even need to share a lease.

In any case, it was the start of the spring semester and with all but one of my classes for my nursing degree and two Clinicals, I knew yesterday was my last day to breathe until May.

Little did I know that those moments the night before preparing for bed and scolding a waisted Madeline that I hadn't been more right. I had a hinting suspicion that my breath had been forever stolen away when I looked into those deep beautiful rose-colored eyes, but I didn't realize that that brief moment forever changed both my life and his.

I'm getting ahead of myself. I need to return to my schedule. So yeah, first day of classes. Never fun. Ever. My first two classes were (surprise!) nursing, and as soon as I took a look at the syllabi, I had to say a quick prayer to myself. Only the grace of God would get me through this semester. My third class, which thankfully wasn't until after a two hour break.

And that's when it all changed.

My third class was a simple Gen. Ed. on early western civilizations that most freshmen take but because of my pure hatred for history, I put it off until my junior year deciding I procrastinated long enough but didn't want to suffer through the class in my last year of college.

I made it into the lecture hall and took a seat towards the front. Once my notebook was out I looked around the lecture hall to see if anyone I knew was in this class with me. Glancing behind me I saw Madeline's cheery smile and curly blonde hair as she waved cheerily at me. I smiled and saluted her back. As much as I complained about her naivety and her poor weekend choices, she really was a sweet kid.

Still waiting for the professor to come in I turned back around. A tall man walked into my row and chose the seat three away from me. I sat back in my chair and got a good glance at the man. For one, it was nice to know that I wasn't the only upperclassmen putting history off until the last second. On another note, this stranger was gorgeous!

What I couldn't figure out though was that this stranger had to have been a year older than me, but I had never seen him before, never had a class. True, he could have been another major, but still I should have at least seen him in my freshmen and sophomore level classes. Could he have been a transfer student? Possibly, but most students didn't transfer in the second semester. But good grief was he gorgeous. Porcelain skin contrasted his black blazer and raven-colored hair so beautifully he looked more like a china doll. His body, though slender was so long and masculine that if he wasn't so graceful in the way he moved, he would have looked like he was struggling to fit himself into the small chair.

The stranger moved quickly, though I could tell the lecture hall setting was baffling to him as he looked for a place to put his briefcase (his briefcase!) and I caught a glimpse of black painted nails and an intricately designed star tattooed on his left hand. I raised an eyebrow at that. Being a personal fan of tattoos myself, I thought a pentagram was a little cheesy. Not only that, but on the hand? Seriously? How obvious could you get? Though I had to admit, for him, it looked pretty damn good.

He must've felt my eyes on him, because the man glanced up at me, halfway to sitting position. That was when I caught a glimpse of his rose-colored eyes. I felt my face heat up, embarrassed that I was caught staring, but managed to cover my flub up with a wave and a polite hello.

The exchange wasn't really more than a second, and the man nodded back to me politely, but he did a double take suddenly and his relaxed and poised expression contorted into one of shock. It was the first and only time I had seen him loose his composure and his eyes never left me as he reached his seat. He even dropped his pencil he was so focused on me. I had no idea what was so interesting, but the way his gaze pierced me, even as I turned away from him and as the professor began his lecture, I could feel the stranger's eyes on me.

Part of me wondered if he had seen a ghost.

* * *

**Great Britain: Year 1888**

**Sebastian**

Afternoons with Lady Elizabether were always quite amusing. They exhausted the young master to no end (and the drove Sebastian as close to exhaustion as a demon could be) and yet it seemed her energy only amplified as the day wore on until she crashed at some point in the evening. This particular evening as the butler readied his master to bed only peaked Sebastian's interest even more.

"Oh, how exhausting," Ciel groaned as he pulled took his eye patch off. "Why do I even put up with her antics?"

At that, Sebastian chuckled. It was a common question after days like this, and so Sebastian replied with his common answer: "Young love, I would presume. She is your fiancé after all, Young Master."

Ciel scoffed in response as per the norm, except this night the young master seemed to be unusually spiteful. Perhaps it was his exhaustion coupled with his natural tendency to act like the demanding brat he is, or perhaps it was destiny working its way into the contract of their lives, but Ciel Phantomhive dared to beg the question to his butler: "And what exactly would _you_ know of love, Sebastian?"

The demon raised his eyebrows as he pulled the covers up to his master's chin. "I suppose you are right, young master," Sebastian responded. And in a way he was. Demons did not feel. At least not in the way humans did. They weren't meant to. Weren't supposed to. Love was simply foreign to Sebastian. To love another being other than himself would almost be begging a death wish for multiple reasons.

As if Ciel had read the demon's mind, the boy hesitantly asked, "Have you…loved someone Sebastian?"

"Can't say that I have," Sebastian answered curtly. "Love is not an emotion we demons allow ourselves to feel. It is simply not in our nature. However, I will say that for reproduction's sake each demon is assigned to a mate."

"A mate?" Ciel asked, his interest peaking.

"Indeed," the butler replied. "Each demon is assigned a mate at birth, though we do not know who that mate is until we see them. You could call it a form of 'love at first sight', at least as close to that as we demons can become."

A large blue eye peered up at Sebastian with skepticism. "And have you?"

"Found my mate?" Sebastian inquired. Ciel responded with a small nod and the butler couldn't help but chuckle at that. "No. And I doubt I will. To find one's mate is very rare and to feel affection for that mate is even more so, dangerous even. I have lived for so long. I do not desire to partake in such trivial matters. Offspring would only mean more competition in terms of feeding, if I may be so blunt."

"Hm," Ciel nodded. The butler could tell that the boy wasn't fully able to process the information. He didn't expect him to. And in a way, it was probably for the best. Once the young master was asleep, the butler too decided to retire for the night, his mind drifting to thoughts he hadn't even considered in at least a hundred years.

A mate. What a petty idea. True, the thought of finding someone to spend your eternity with intrigued Sebastian once in his younger years, but after spending a millennia watching what an eternity with a mate did to some of his peers—not to mention the few couples that ventured so far as to feel love and compassion for each other—the idea no longer intrigued the demon. In fact, it turned his stomach if anything. He tried to actively avoid others of his kind so that on the off chance he did run into his mate, he wouldn't be forced to stay with her. If he didn't know who or where she was, then there was no obligation for Sebastian to seek her out.

Unfortunately for Sebastian, his efforts to avoid demon kind did little to protect him from destiny for his mate was hardly a demon at all. In fact, she eventually became the exact opposite.

* * *

**United States: Year 2014**

**Artie**

Come to find out, early prehistory was actually quite interesting. Especially when you take into account the parallels between the Garden of Eden in the book of Genesis and Mesopotamia. I didn't think I wanted to share my epiphanies with anyone in my bible study though. I loved God and there was no doubt in my mind that I was His beloved child, just as we all were, but some people just took the Word too damn seriously. I mean, you can't deny that…oh never mind, I don't want to get started with this argument.

Anyway, prehistory was very interesting but the entire hour in that lecture hall I couldn't shake the feeling of Tall, Dark-haired, and Hansome's eyes on me. And every time I made the mistake of glancing over at the man, I would always find his rose-colored eyes staring into my soul as if he was trying to find something within me that had long been lost to him. It was…very Augustinian of the stranger actually. I just hoped I wasn't about to become the next Hazel Grace Lancaster the way he stared at me.

Even after class the Augustinian parallels continued as he smiled politely—and much more cockily than his first quiet greeting—and he looked to have found something. I nodded past him and tried to make my way out of the lecture hall as quickly as possible in order to avoid any form of embarrassment that I knew was coming. This guy was going to try hitting on me, I knew it. And me and boys…it was an understatement to say I didn't know how to communicate with the opposite sex. I was determined to make it back to my room as quickly as possible, but Madeline waved me down in the middle of her flock of freshmen, asking me to wait for her. My heart sank at that but still I smiled back at her in acknowledgement. For some reason, little Maddie adored me to no end and looked for every chance she could to have lunch with me and suck up as much wisdom from a broke-ass, twenty-one year old whose best friends were Jesus Christ and alcohol in that order as she possibly could. And me, being me, couldn't say no to those blonde curls and dimpled smile.

I stepped out of the lecture hall and pulled my scarf up to my chin as much as possible, trying to make myself inconspicuous. Tall, Dark-haired, and Handsome exited the lecture hall just as I took my place in the corner of the hallway, averting my gaze as if it would make me any less visible. But no, of course those red eyes would hone in on me. Of course he would waltz straight up to me thinking I was some eye candy a transfer student could get with. And of course, I knew I was about to make an utter fool of myself. It was hard enough talking to boys, but for someone _that_ gorgeous to approach me and just knowing I was going to turn him off so badly he might get the opposite of a boner…whatever the hell that was.

Ooooh and the stranger just had to keep up with that Augustinian saunter didn't he. I just hoped it would go away as soon as he spoke.

The good news is that he did. The bad news is that his silky British accent not only blew Augustus's charm out of the water (pun intended) his voice made me weak in the knees. Lord have mercy, this was not going to end well.

"I hope you can forgive me for my rudeness earlier," he said, offering his tattooed hand. I clumsily took it in mine in a failed attempt at a polite handshake. "It is not polite of a man to stare to long at a young lady as beautiful as yourself. I simply could not help myself."

"Oh, s-sure yeah, 'ts fine," I stuttered, the lisp I had as a child sneaking its way to the surface. My hands felt clammy and still he held one of them in his. The back of my neck was starting to sweat. The back of my neck! I couldn't have been more thankful for the winter giving me an excuse to wear a coat so this beautiful specimen couldn't see my growing pit stains. Oh, this was awful.

For some reason, the stranger chuckled at my inherent awkwardness as if it were almost charming as he asked, "What is your name?"

"Uhhhh," I stammered. Crap, what was my name? "Artie."

Tall, Dark-haired, and Handsome chuckled again and teased, "Just Artie?"

"Well, I mean, my full name is Artemis Grace Thomas. But just call me Artie."

Somehow, even that didn't satisfy the stranger's curiosity, "Artemis Grace. What a unique name. And for a unique woman. I'm surprised you choose such a simple nickname to go by."

I narrowed my eyes at that. The stranger's Augustus was showing again, except this guy spoke with a much more condescending tone than I imagined Augustus would have said when he first met Hazel. Granted, his accent wholeheartedly made up for it, but I wasn't about to show my weakness for foreigners. "Well, Artie is the name I chose and I think it suits me."

The man's eyes practically lit up and his smile broadened just enough to show his flawless pearls for teeth. "Indeed it does, Artie. Indeed it does."

I cocked my head to the side, unable to contain my own smile as I asked, "And if I may ask, what is your name?"

With a light chuckle, the man raised my hand to his lips as if he were a Victorian gentleman and kissed it before answering, "I am Sebastian Michaelis, however you may call me Sebastian."

Sebastian…the name rolled off his tongue like chocolate syrup. I leaned against the wall and smiled. I felt like an utter train wreck in this guy's presence (probably more so about the fact that he not only tolerated my antics but actually seemed to draw towards them) and it was only a matter of time before I started word-vomiting all over him in a nervous fit, I just knew it.

For once, Madeline was actually helpful as she came to my rescue, her curls bouncing fervently.

"Hey, Artie!" she cheered as she came up to me, brushing past Sebastian as if he were invisible. She took one look at my flabbergasted, red-cheeked expression and then turned to the man in our presence before her jaw dropped and she asked, "Who is _this_?"

"Se—Sebass—" I stuttered, but Sebastian merely smiled and held his hand out to Madeline and as she took it, he lifted it to his lips in greeting just as he did me. Part of me deflated, wanting to smack that turd across the face for making me think that standard greeting of his was uniquely for me, but the logical portion of my brain reminded me that I had just met him and doing so would make me look even more insane than I already did.

"Sebastian Michaelis," he introduced. "And may I ask what name belongs to you, ma'am?"

"Madeline," my roommate squeaked with much more fluency than I could ever muster. "Madeline Midford."

"Midford?" Sebastian asked, raising an eyebrow. "You wouldn't perhaps be a descendant of the Midfords of England, would you?"

Madeline and I exchanged confused glances before she shrugged and said, "Um, I guess. I know I had family immigrate from there back in the day, but I don't pay much attention to family history."

"But of course, I understand," Sebastian answered, releasing Maddie's hand and placing his own to his chest as if to bow. "I was only curious. You know, when I lived in England I knew the Midfords quite well. They were a powerful and noble family. Highly respectable."

"So you're from the UK then?" I asked curiously. "I mean, that's what I figured with your accent and all…but what brought you here?"

"You might say it was a whim, or you might say it was destiny," Sebastian explained, his rose-colored eyes sparkling with the word 'destiny'. It just rolled so smoothly off his tongue, it nearly hypnotized me. But he released me from my trance and elaborated, "A colleague of mine decided he needed a change of scenery and sought to finish his studies here. I simply decided to come with him."

"That's nice," I swooned as Maddie crinkled her nose in minor disgust.

"Wait, there was a scrawny British kid in my English class this morning. He had an eye patch on and was all snooty…that wouldn't happen to be him, would it?" she asked. Sebastian's eyes widened slightly in recognition of the name, otherwise unfazed by Madeline's visible disgust. I remember her complaining about this kid when I got back from my pediatrics class earlier…and one thing about Madeline was that she was blunter than a butter knife. She didn't care if she knew you or not, she was going to tell you _exactly _what she thinks of you whenever she got the chance and she did _not_ like what she saw of that brat this morning. Apparently.

"Yes, that would be the young Lord Ciel Phantomhive," Sebastian replied, his voice sounding strained as if he knew what was going to come out of Maddie's mouth next.

"_Lord_?" Maddie asked, as she placed her hands on her hips. "That twerp is a _lord_? He's like fourteen! He belongs in middle school not _college_!"

Sebastian then sighed, obviously sympathizing, though he tried his best to hide it. "Indeed, Lord Phantomhive is quite young, though his mind is much older than his years and after the death of his parents he was not only knighted by the queen as Lord of his estate, but he has completed all of his academic requirements to study at the University level. I do apologize on his behalf though, I understand he can be quite arrogant at times."

"_Arrogant_?" Maddie continued, "Oh, let me tell you a thing—"

"Madeline," I scolded, grabbing her shoulder tightly. The girl almost immediately shrunk away from Sebastian and submitted to me, averting her green eyes from the stranger.

"Sorry," she mumbled, though Sebastian seemed to take no offense at all.

"It's quite alright," he chuckled. "He does have a tendency to rub others the wrong way, but I assure you that he is a good man once you know him. In any case, I have kept you two long enough. It was good to meet you, Madeline, Artemis."

I tried really hard to respond politely, but I couldn't get over how awful my name sounded to me, even if it was spoken so elegantly, the sound of Madeline's snort in response all but made me want to strangle my parents for giving me such a ludicrous name. They didn't even know why they named me Artemis. Up until the moment I was born I was supposed to be Grace but as soon as my mom looked down at my baby bundle she made a last minute decision that Dad seemed to agree with for whatever reason.

"You just looked like an Artemis," Mom always said. "It suits you so well."

Yeah, well…whatever. I was stuck with it and I was too lazy and too conscious of my parent's feelings to go through the process of changing it.

"Please. Don't," I stuttered in response.

"Don't what?" Sebastian asked, looking almost confused.

"Don't call me Artemis," I pleaded. "Artie's just fine."

Sebastian almost looked a little sad at my request but he nodded and bid us both goodbye. As we walked to lunch, I felt myself letting out a deep breath that I had been holding since he made eye contact with me before class.

And of course, Maddie, being Maddie, had to ruin my moment of peace after that encounter as soon as we sat down for lunch in the dining hall.

"So you gonna get it in?" she asked, giving me a cheeky smile. I practically spit out my drink, choking on the bits of water that went into my lungs.

"What?" I screamed.

"That guy we just met," Madeline answered as if it explained everything. "Did you even _look_ at him? He was hot!"

"Yes, I know that, Madeline," I groaned. "Trust me, I got a _really_ good look at him. He was practically breathing down my neck, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah, but he was totally into you!" Madeline shrieked, throwing her hands in the air. "I bet if you asked, he would totally hook up with you."

"Maddie!" I scolded, but "motherly-lecture-tone" as the girl liked to call it, had almost no affect on the bubbly girl. If there was one thing that could get her going, it was talking about boys. I made the mistake of informing her that I had no interest in pursuing _any_ relationship with _any_ man last semester and I had been regretting that lapse in judgment every day after that. At first she thought I just didn't swing that direction and tried to see what it was I was interested in, but then as soon as she saw me try to interact with the cute guy, Tim, in my bible study it was all over. She worked effortlessly to set us up. Until he got a girlfriend. Then she tried setting me up with every guy she met at a frat party. She tried _dragging_ me out to frat parties, then convinced me to sneak her into the bar when she realized I was long past the freshman party phase just so she could hook me up with someone. When it came to boys, that girl had her head up her arse, that was for sure. And of course, my friends didn't do much to help my case. If anything, they encouraged her. They pointed her towards every single guy in their apartment complex they knew. If I didn't let that poor sap down hard, then I usually turned him off so hard he ran away from me. So. Yeah. I admired hers and my friends' persistence though.

"Come on, Artie!" Madeline pleaded. "He kissed your hand! I saw it!"

"He kissed your hand too," I retorted. "He's British and probably into the whole Victorian Downton Abbey manors type thing."

Maddie rolled her eyes and chided, "He held his lips to your hand longer."

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Madeline, we literally just met the guy!"

"So? Never stopped me!"

"You're a freshman," I retorted. "You're in the middle of growing up and you hold different values than I do."

"Oh not this again," Maddie rolled her eyes, smacking her hand to her face. She hated whenever I gave this lecture, I know she did. I hated giving it, especially when it started after she spent a week crying over her midterm grades, but parents spoiled her too much to give her the lecture, so someone had to. Strangely enough, this time, I wasn't using the card to convince her to go to class but to defend myself as to why I don't waste my time trying to get with a guy.

"Maddie, the fact is that I'm a nursing major and I just don't have time for a relationship right now—"

"Well then live a little, would ya?" Maddie gasped. "You always say that you don't have time for this or that, but this is like your only time! You tell me I'm in this phase of growing up where I have to get my wildness out of the way, but when are you going to take care of yours?"

I opened my mouth to say something smart back to the girl, but for some reason, no words came. Maddie took the opening to reach across the table and grab my hands. This time it was her turn to lecture me: "Just…if he continues talking to you…don't shy away from him, okay? At least see where this goes. You never know, you might have just met your future husband."

I rolled my eyes and chuckled at the girl. She was obsessed with the bridal shows and always made future husband jokes, yet there was a genuine sparkle in her eyes that told me I should give this possible friendship with Tall, Dark-haired, and Handsome a chance.

"Alright. You win."

* * *

**Sebastian**

"For lunch today, I've prepared a lightly poached salmon," Sebastian began as he laid out the meal for his master. Even after just over a century, the younger demon fought to sway from his aristocratic upbringing. The butler had to suppress a bemused smile at how his spoiled master even ordered they secure a mansion in the area, despite the commute to the University they now hid away in. Ciel didn't take much of a liking to the idea of enrolling in University either, but Sebastian had to admit that his master at least saw the logic in it. If they were to return to the human world, they would have to abide by modern human customs, and that included obtaining a graduated degree. Granted, Sebastian could have easily created a replica for the both of them, but Ciel's social skills, especially in this new day and age were dismal if anything.

"Sebastian, this is tedious," Ciel scoffed. "I understand why you insist we do this, but in America?"

"You didn't wish to return to the Queen's service, My Lord, and returning to England would require that. This is the best alternative," Sebastian explained once more.

"But these people…they are blubbering idiots," the boy spat. "Pathetic mortals…"

"Let us not forget that you were once among them, Young Master," Sebastian chastised lightly. And he was so close to eating the boy's soul too…if only he had been stronger.

If only his mate hadn't…

No, Sebastian was not going to let his thoughts sink that low. Such thoughts were beneath him, even if he did let himself succumb to lowly human emotions. "I met Lady Elizabeth's descendent today. Madeline Midford is her name."

"Yes, I met her as well," Ciel grimaced. Apparently, whatever the two's exchange was in their English class, it left both parties rather sour. "And she's Edward's descendant, I figured out that much."

"Yes, but the relation is still there," Sebastian mused. "She certainly resembles Elizabeth—"

"She's a spiteful naïve idiot with no respect for her history. Lizzie would have never—" Ciel stopped himself suddenly and looked away. Sebastian chuckled to himself.

"My, my, are you missing her, Young Master?" Sebastian ventured to ask. It was unlike Ciel to mention anything of his past, even his time spent as a human after the incident that killed his family.

"You're one to talk," Lord Phantomhive spat back incredulously. Sebastian had to clench his jaw at that. Indeed, both demons had suffered great loss in their lifetime. But Ciel was young still, he had eons to rebuild his life and relationships with those around him should he so choose.

Sebastian on the other hand…well, he was practically counting down the days he had left to suffer and he would undoubtedly spend them alone, without the one person he once thought he never wished to meet. And now, without that person in his life he felt an emptiness that tore at him with each passing day.

And then there was the young lady whom he had met that invoked something within Sebastian that almost resembled emotion. Her dark red hair was unkempt and pulled haphazardly back into a bun and her complexion was so pale that her freckles stood out along with dark blue eyes that hid timidly behind long eyelashes. She made herself out to be so plain looking and she was undoubtedly human. And yet…

And yet Artemis Grace Thomas held such a befitting name.

* * *

**Artie**

I sat in the café drinking a chai tea latte after my clinical the next week. I stood out in my nursing scrubs and subconsciously scratched my scalp where the knot I had tied my hair into was, weighing my options and debating if it was worth it to return home and shower. I did desperately need to shave.

But then again, it was almost dinnertime and a Friday which meant everyone was fighting for mirror space to put their makeup on to go out and they would undoubtedly beg me to join them.

Screw that, I was going over to Krysta's and Ashley's apartment that night to watch Disney movies and bake cookies. Much better way to spend my time and sob over my life choices.

But still…I couldn't go over there until I showered…and I needed to make sure Madeline wasn't planning to do anything stupid…ugh, decisions, decisions.

Before I could come to a conclusion, however, a distinctive low and very British voice dancing across the room caught my attention as I shot my head up and caught Sebastian standing at the register ordering a coffee. I should have looked down sooner, but as soon as it dawned on me to, he lowered his gaze from the menu and locked eyes with me and flashed his beautiful smile.

And of course as soon as he got drink he waltzed right over to me.

"Hello, Artie. Is this seat taken?" he asked. I shook my head and moved my notes so he could sit. He took a sip of his drink as he sat down and I couldn't help but laugh at the slight contortion of his expression. "I must say, you don't serve the highest quality tea here. It's quite weak."

I couldn't help but giggle. Over the course of the last week, our conversations had been growing more casual and I was starting to feel myself loosen up around him, able to avoid stuttering with an embarrassing lisp. "What did you get?"

"Earl Grey," Sebastian grimaced again as he sat his cup down. I giggled and shook my head again.

"So British," I teased, and then offered him a sip of my drink. "Try this. It's a Chai Tea Latte. It's not exactly tea by your standards, but it's sweet."

Sebastian eyed my beverage suspiciously before he took it in hand and sipped. His lips puckered slightly as he gazed off to the distance and nodded his head. "Interesting," he stated.

"You don't like it do you," I observed as he handed me my latte.

"No, no! It's not that! It is good," Sebastian tried to explain as if he thought he offended me with his picky taste in tea. "I just…I have a very different sense of taste than most. I won't go into the details, but Earl Grey has been one of those drinks that I have taken a strange liking to."

"So in other words, you're just a picky eater," I teased. I got another chuckle out of Sebastian at that as he nodded his head.

"Yes, I suppose you could say that," he replied, his rose-colored eyes sparkling. We sat there and chatted for a while. Although we had become friendly with each other in class (turns out I had two other classes with him. The big shot was pre-med of all majors) this was the first real conversation I had with Sebastian in any other setting where I didn't feel the compelling need to hurl from the anxiety of dealing with boys. He had a comforting presence, I was realizing, and with each encounter I felt more at ease with Sebastian as I noticed more and more how open he was around me—at least compared to other people like Madeline or Krysta who were the only two of my friends that actually knew about Tall, Dark-haired, and Handsome—and I was foolish enough to wonder if I had the same effect on him.

I also began noticing his sense of humor. Beneath all of his charm and his posh British exterior, Sebastian was actually a pretty quiet guy. I'd almost go as far as to call him a bit shy when he wasn't being a British gentleman. But if you got him to open up and show his wittier side, you could catch his dry sense of humor and the subtly of his jokes that you could only get if you shared even an ounce of his extensive knowledge and philosophical viewpoints. Again, it was so Augustinian of him and I had half a mind to check my oxygen supply or ask Sebastian how many legs he had.

"So tell me something," Sebastian asked, leaning towards me as his polished manors and the walls that separated me from a raw and unadulterated Sebastian all but disappeared. I sipped the last of my latte and leaned towards Sebastian. He crossed his arms, but held a hand out as if he wanted me to take it. I, in turn rested my head in my hands as my elbows rested on the table and awaited his question. "Artemis Grace, why do you dislike your name?"

I puffed out my cheeks at that and sat back in my chair. Sebastian gazed at me with an almost concerned expression as if he were a hurt kitten (fun fact: we were both cat fans. A good hour of our visit that day was spent showing him pictures of my cat from back home…my fat, furry mound of cat. It almost made him squeal. Sadly, he didn't, but the giggle I got out of him was good enough for me). Sebastian leaned to the side a bit and asked, "Is that not something you wish to speak about?"

"What? Oh! No, no, it's fine!" I waved my hadns in front of me for a bit. "Sorry, it's just…I mean, there's nothing _wrong_ with my name, I just never liked it. I mean, 'Grace' is okay. It's a little girly, but it's okay. But 'Artemis'? Blagh!"

I cringed and stuck my tongue out for emphasis, causing Sebastian to smile and shake his head. "It is unique, I will say that. Just out of curiosity, do you know why your parents gave you that name?"

Again, I shrugged. "I don't think they even know why they gave me that name. They were planning on naming me Grace but when I was born Mom just decided I looked more like an Artemis. I don't even know how she came up with such an atrocious name."

"I have a few ideas," Sebastian mused. I gave him a quizzical look and he responded with an innocently confused one. There was a brief moment of silence before Sebastian changed the subject again.

We had to have been sitting there for a couple hours before I got a text from Krysta asking where I was, to which I quickly replied, "Coffee with Tall, Dark-Haired, and Handsome. Lemme shower and I'll be there."

The next text I got from her, of course, was, "GET IT INNNN" to which I quickly ignored.

"Your friends are looking for you?" Sebastian asked the second time my phone dinged. I sighed heavily and nodded.

"I should probably get going. We have a planned movie night and I still need to shower and change out of these scrubs," I explained as I put my jacket on. Sebastian nodded and swiftly moved to my side to help me into my coat sleeves before he handed me my scarf.

"Th-thanks," I stuttered. Still, I couldn't get passed the awkwardness whenever he did the polite thing. The guy even walked me back to my building for crying out loud!

"I bid you a goodnight," Sebastian bowed. I tried to fake a curtsey, but immediately regretted how awkward and insulting it must've looked. The man only laughed at my sad attempt and kissed my hand. "Shall I see you tomorrow?"

I shrugged, "Yeah I guess. Though I don't have your phone number to text you."

Sebastian in response pulled out his cell phone from his pocket and handed it to me with the contact window open. I plugged my number into it and he plugged his own into mine. When we exchanged our phones again, I realized suddenly that there was nothing else to say other than goodbye. The feeling was…quite depressing really.

"Well, Artie, I bid you goodnight," Sebastian said as snow began to fall. With that, he turned to leave, but I couldn't shake some unnerving feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"Hey Sebastian?"

"Yes, Artie?" the man turned as if he had been expecting me to say something.

"Just out of curiosity," I stumbled over the words awkwardly, "Why are you so interested in my name?"

"Because Artemis Grace," Sebastian said. His eyes trailed to the ground almost sadly before he looked back at me and flashed his beautiful smile, "it is the name of an angel."


	2. Sushi?

Well…that escalated quickly. You'll see what I mean. But anyway, time to get to the good stuff! Also, sorry, this was a lot longer than I intended it to be. The fluff just sort of…happened.

Also, if I need to rate this story M, please let me know in a review. Don't flame me or anything, just politely say, "hey, I think this is more suited to a 16-and-up audience" because the content in this story is a lot more mature than in my past writings but I still don't elaborate on anything…lemony or wildly inappropriate so I feel like I'm in this gray area. But anyway, yeah, just let me know what you think! (But seriously, no flames. You accomplish nothing by insulting fellow writers and hurting people's feelings)

Also I am adding a disclaimer that yes, I do have a gender-queer main character besides Grell that I have added in this chapter. And they have a girlfriend/datefriend (Casey's cis and bi, Trent is just Trent). If you are not LGBTQ and can't handle these subjects, please don't flame me, you don't have to read this story (though I will ask why you are reading a Black Butler fanfic where one of the main characters is GRELL of all people). If you are LGBTQ and I am not portraying any aspect of my characters and their relationship accurately, I'm sorry. I'm about as cis and straight as it gets, but I am basing my characters' interactions off of a couple of people I know and just my general observations as well as questions that I asked them soooo yeah. Plus Trent and Casey are hella fun to write. Challenging, but fun. I've wanted to play with character dynamics like theirs and it's soooo fuuuuuun!

Oh, and I'm adding another disclaimer: Artie and Sebastian get into a rather…religious conversation. If you haven't figured it out, Artie's a devout catholic and she takes her faith very seriously. She's a very Christ-centered person. I'm not throwing those details in there to spew my own religious viewpoints at people, I'm really not. I assure you there is a purpose for it in relation to the plot of the story (I mean…Jesus-loving girl+demon from hell…that's one hell of a combination! Also two drums and a cymbal just fell off a cliff).

Okay, I think that covers it! Hopefully as this story gets going I won't have to post so many disclaimers at the top. This is certainly becoming one of my more adventurous and riskier stories! It's like I'm living on the edge…I kind of like it!

(Wow living on the edge by putting young adult themes, gender-queer characters, and religious context in one story…I'm such badass…not really XD)

Anyway, onwards and upwards!

ENJOI

* * *

**Great Britain: Year 1888**

**Ciel**

He was working in his study when Sebastian knocked on the door. He didn't need to look up to know what was on the tray his butler carried.

"Pardon the intrusion, My Lord," Sebastian stated as he approached Ciel's desk.

"Message from the queen I take it?" Ciel guessed as Sebastian presented the letter.

"There have been a series of kidnappings in London recently," the butler explained. "All young women between the ages of ten and eighteen." As he spoke, Ciel took the liberty to read through the letter, nodding his head as he read into the details.

"There is evidence that all of these kidnappings occurred when the girls were asleep. Her majesty is distressed at the thought of her subjects being unable to sleep at night," Ciel read in the letter. "Although Scotland Yard is on the case, she is asking us to step in and conduct our own investigation."

"Shall I ready a carriage, sir?" Sebastian asked, already grabbing Ciel's coat. Lord Phantomhive wasted no time as he stepped into the coat and took his top hat from the butler.

"Sebastian, this is an order," Ciel began. In response, Sebastian stiffened slightly, his dark eyes lighting up just as he always reacted when his master began to give an order: "Locate the kidnapper and return the missing girls to their homes. Do you understand?"

A small smile flashed across Sebastians' face as he placed a hand to his heart and bowed, "Yes, My Lord."

* * *

**United States: Year 2014**

**Artie**

There was a reason I withheld any information about Sebastian for a week.

As soon as I walked in the door of the apartment, Krysta, Ashley, Trent, and Casey all pounced on me like mad hyenas all screaming thins about Tall, Dark-haired, and Handsome as they pulled me through the door and practically threw me on the couch before Trent somehow managed to straddle me and shook me by the shoulders.

Alright, let me back track so you guys know exactly who I'm talking about. Krysta and Ashley were the ones who owned this particular apartment and were usually the ones responsible (along with Madeline now apparently) for my (nonexistent) love life. Krysta was my roommate freshman year and our bond was instant. She was a short, middle-eastern girl with dark black hair and onyx eyes. She was the kind of girl that could wear the shortest shorts and a cut-off shirt and make it look classy. She was also a secondary education major with a concentration in mathematics, worked at Hot Topic, and sometimes it was a wonder that she was even allowed to student teach with all of her exposed tattoo sleeves and piercings. But then again, she also made her gages look pretty damn classy. Plus, she was also Muslim and part of me wondered if she went into her interview wearing her hijab to cover the gages up.

A few weeks after Move-in Day we met Ashley who also lived on our floor. Ashley was the girly girl of our group. She was the cutest thing that could be, what with her dark curly hair always pulled back with bows and her almost completely pink wardrobe. When you put her next to Krysta, at first glance she looked like the type of person Krysta would beat the crap out of, but they were best of friends and roommates this year. I was supposed to room with them (the apartment was a triple and had an extra room they still considered mine) but my parents didn't want to pay any more money than they had to on my education and when I'm already saving up for my own place and work as a waitress making only so much money off of tips, I just didn't have the finances to contribute.

And then there were Casey and Trent. Ohh, those two, God love 'em. I know I certainly do. Like Krysta and Ashley, I also met them my freshman year. Trent is an engineering major and was actually Ashley's roommate freshman year. Back then her name was Theresa and was wholeheartedly closeted. And, as you may or may not have guessed, came out almost immediately after I introduced her to Casey. Trent kind of…well, depending on their mood, Trent was either a girl or a boy—she's pretty gender fluid—and I use female pronouns right now because that particular night she decided to wear her sweater dress, put on lipstick, and curl what was left of her dirty-blonde, half-shaved hair (she asked everyone to just use the appropriate pronouns that match her mood on a particular day, which granted is a hell of a lot easier than gender-neutral pronouns).

Casey is another fellow nursing major of mine and we were in Biology freshman year together and bonded over being gingers—though with her green eyes and strawberry-blonde hair she looked a lot more Irish than I did, but I was actually Irish between the two of us. At the time I introduced her to Trent, she had come out to me as Bi and I was pretty sure Trent was also closeted so I introduced them with the soul intention that they could help each other through the process (despite my lack of interest in men, I'm as straight as a bean pole and didn't think I would be of much help). What I didn't realize at the time was that they were practically soul mates. They have basically been datefriends since they've been in college and it was practically a countdown until one of them proposed to the other (not to mention, somehow Trent's gender moods were in direct correlation with Casey's preference on a particular day. It was weird how in sink with each other they were). Also as you might have guessed, they were roommates and lived right across the hall from Krysta and Ashley. As close as I was to them, they had been dating for so long that their advice with boys just wasn't very accurate. At all. I trusted Krysta and Ashley's judgment more. Actually, I just trusted Krysta's judgment at this point because Ashley had been going steady with her current boyfriend for the last few months and her advice was starting to get a little ridiculous.

"Come on, Artie, spill it already! When did you meet this guy?" Trent asked, shaking my arms again. I pushed her off my lap and tried to distance myself from the interrogation by hugging a pillow on Krysta's couch as if it could shield me from the flying questions.

"What's his name?"

"Sebastian."

"How old is he?"

"I dunno…twenty-two?"

"So he's a senior?"

"No, he's a junior. He just transferred here from London."

"HE'S BRITISH?"

"Yes!"

"Oh my god, what's his accent like?"

"British…"

"How British?"

"_Very_ British."

"You get his number?"

"Yeah."

"You gonna text him?"

"Probably."

"You gonna get it in?"

By that point, I couldn't take the questions any more as I flew my arms in front of my red face and screamed, "Guys!"

Three girls withdrew but Trent crossed her arms and gave me a pointed glance, readying herself to ask the most important question of them all: "Is he on Facebook?"

And that got the other three riled up all over again but I discovered that I did not know the answer to that question. And so, being the dorks we were, we looked him up.

And he most certainly wasn't on Facebook.

"Well, damn, now I can't stalk him," Trent groaned, falling backwards into Casey's lap. Casey, on the other hand, decided to ask the deeper questions.

"Well, how'd you meet him? Madeline said he's in your guys' history class?" she asked. I nodded my head.

"Yeah, he sits next to me in the second row. In front of the freshman herd," I answered as Krysta held up movie selections for the other two to decide from. Apparently since Trent was in her girly mood that night, she demanded the movie night be princess movies ("That's why I got dressed up and shit! Mostly!" she cried out earlier, after which she received a smug peck on the cheek from Casey…oh, those two are adorable.)

"I'm guessing Madeline's with the herd then?" Casey chuckled. I laughed too as I nodded my head in response.

"But she demands to have lunch with me after class every day," I giggle. "No one else at our table, just me."

"Not even Sebastian?" Casey asked, giving me a smug look.

"Well, he commutes so he's not on a meal plan. Plus there's apparently this fourteen-year-old freshman here named Ciel that he's looking after, so he usually just has lunch at home I think."

At that, Krysta and Trent both shot up to attention and stared menacingly at me and with the purest hatred screamed, "That little shit!"

I jumped and looked at the two. Damn, I heard Madeline had problems with this kid but Krysta and Trent too? And they were as laid back as it gets when it came to stupid people!

"What did he do?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. Krysta was the type who rarely got angry and Trent only ever got riled up when someone insulted her sexuality, but that happened so often (especially on a boy day at the gym, sheesh) she just brushed the matter off and stopped caring (or she'd sick Casey on the person in question. You did _not_ mess with Casey and you certainly didn't mess with her datefriend.) So seeing Krysta _and_ Trent this angry meant that this Ciel kid must've gone way low.

"That uptight, bratty, one-eyed, moron has another thing coming if he thinks he can get away with that inflated head of his!" Trent shouted.

"So, we're in Calculus together right?" Krysta began. "Turns out that this fourteen-year-old is in Advanced Calculus for _whatever_ reason and in lecture the first day, the professor was going over vectors and Ciel practically goes off on this kid for raising his hand and asking a question!"

"He went off on him?" Casey asked. By this point, Trent had reclined back into Casey's lap again and she nodded her head fervently.

"Wait, what did he say?"

"He was all, 'What is wrong with you? Didn't you learn this already?'" Krysta explained, mimicking a British accent. "And then this poor kid was like, 'Yeah, but I never quite understood it and I just wanted clarification.' But then Ciel snapped and stood up in his chair shouting, 'If you can't figure it out, you shouldn't be disrupting class in the first place! Go back to primary school!' or something along those lines. And then when the professor yelled at him he called us all idiots and stormed out of the classroom!"

I blinked a few times, but before I could say anything, Trent went on her own rant, "And then the next class I had to work with him and he stops in the middle of what we're going and asks, 'If you're a woman why do you dress so degradingly?'"

At that, Casey shook her head and shouted, "Oh hell no!"

"Oh it gets worse," Trent went on, but she looked up at the way Casey was gripping the side of the couch before she changed the direction of the conversation and patted her hand. "Don't worry about it though, Case. He's just an annoying brat anyhow."

I fought to hide my smile. Ugh, I just wanted to see a ring already! But, knowing Trent and Casey both, we'd probably have to all wait another year or two before any wedding plans started up. All I knew was that Krysta was going to be Casey's maid of honor and I was going to be whatever Trent decided to put me in (which right now as looking like a purple bridesmaid gown with a matching blazer to go with whatever mood Trent eventually decided on. At least, that's what her Pinterest was telling me so far. Not like I was looking forward to the wedding or anything. Krysta already had Casey's bachelorette party figured out though. Just saying.)

In any case, Trent finally decided on the movie Brave and of course, I got called out as being the Merida of the group because of my red hair. I had to disagree of course, although I loved what she stood for couple with her badassery, my hair was more orange than red. And it certainly wasn't curly. It was about that messy most of the time but it was not that curly. I personally thought I looked more like Anna (and yes, Frozen was the next movie on the list, per Krysta's pick) but every one else protested that Anna was Casey mostly because Trent called dibs on being Kristof and party because I usually ran the other way whenever a boy entered the scene. Even the idea of dating Sebastian—despite how well we got along and how _gorgeous_ he was—made me want to squirm.

And then watching the song between Anna and Hans made me wonder if all my fears were because I was waiting for my clumsy little Kristof to come along, none of this Prince Charming material that all the other girls dream of.

Then there was Sebastian, the Augustinian Prince Charming. That was even more terrifying.

As if to add insult to the injury in my thought process, Ashley picked Cinderella as our next movie. Before the Fairy God Mother showed up, however, my phone rang.

It was Maddie's so-called "friend", Sophie. Great.

"Hello?" I answered, only to hear Sophie crying hysterically on the other end. I felt my heart sink and my friends looked to me knowingly. They went to an off-campus party. I just knew it.

The thing with off-campus parties at my school is that you just don't go to them. Especially when you're a naïve and pretty little freshman like Madeline and don't know any street smarts to protect you from those leeches that throw the party in the first place. I always told her that if she was going to get plastered, I didn't care as long as she didn't go somewhere that wasn't a frat house. Frat houses were gross, but I trusted those guys. They were respectful and never took advantage of the girls that attended their parties. But the morons dumb enough to have keggers three blocks away from the police department? I wouldn't even dare to spit in their direction they were so fowl.

Thankfully, the worst didn't happen, but by the sound of Sophie's tears and her occasional disruption of the conversation to scream incoherently at whoever was near, I knew that they had come close to it.

"I'll be right over," I said quickly, not wanting to waste any time.

"Are you going to call the police?" Sophie asked suddenly. I rolled my eyes. That brat.

"Depends on how sick Madeline is," I answered stiffly. That certainly sobered Sophie up.

"No! Please don't! These guys are my friends! They didn't mean to make her sick, they just wanted to loosen her up a bit because she was so uptight about being here!" Sophie defended, backtracking quickly as if she were trying to make Maddie's situation seem less bad than it probably was.

"Wait, you _knew_ that they spiked her drink?" I asked, disgusted. That's it. I was done with this brat.

"Well, I mean—" Sophie stuttered, at a loss for words. "Look, you're a nurse, you know how to take care of her! Can't you just fix her?"

"She's not a broken toy, you bitch, she's a human being and she's supposed to be _your_ friend! I'll be over in ten!" I shouted into the phone before I swiftly hung up and ran out to my car. Trent was right behind me, apparently deciding to help me out on this (he usually did whenever I had to pick up Maddie from somewhere on the weekends, bless his heart).

Thankfully, Madeline was not nearly as bad as I suspected, but as soon as I showed up to get her, Sophie took off with some other girls to Greek Row and party where they _should have been_ in the first place. As if that brat could get away from me. Please.

Madeline was, however, too sick to get into the car so for a good hour she kneeled in the street while I held her hair back a few blocks down from the party and behind my car. We did get to watch the party get shut down by the police, so that was a plus.

"I'm sorry," Madeline moaned as we drove her back to the apartment. She was way too sick to get past the RA's on our floor.

"It's okay," I said gently, glancing up at her pale face in the rearview mirror. She looked like a small child in that moment, like a sick baby. I felt a pang in my stomach at the thought. Despite my inherent awkwardness around men, I had always dreamed of having a family of my own. A husband to love me the way my father loved my mom. And little kids to run around the house and jump on me every morning before school and drive us crazy just like my brothers and I did…and when I looked at Trent and Casey's relationship, I had to admit that it hurt a little knowing that I've never really loved someone the way they loved each other.

I shook my head quickly as Trent pulled me out of my bizarre thoughts by turning to Madeline and stating, "You know what we need to do? We just need to all get together at my place and have a beer. That's what we need. The parties are fun and all, but if you're always going out and packing it down, you don't know your limit. If we just all sit back and watch movies, drinking a beer, maybe a glass of wine for the fancy folks like Casey—"

"Casey is pretty fancy," I interjected.

"Have you seen the restaurants she takes me to when she plans our dates?" Trent agreed before she continued, "What I'm saying is, you just gotta have a relaxing night with a beer in your hand to find out what your limit is. As soon as you do, you won't be having these hectic nights anymore and your mornings will go a whole lot smoother."

"I don't want to think about beer anymore…" Maddie moaned, still not completely with it. I sighed, knowing she wouldn't remember this conversation, though I did like Trent's idea. As poor her judgment was, everyone loved Madeline. She'd usually hang out at the apartment with me on nights she didn't go out. I figured next weekend we'd put something in her hand for a change and see how she handled it.

It took both of us to carry Madeline into the building, and as we crossed the parking lot, I caught sight of a long and dark figure watching us. For a moment, I thought it was Sebastian.

"Are you ladies in need of assistance?" a husky voice asked. He too had an accent though it was very indistinct. I caught a glimpse of golden eyes behind the rims of the man's glasses and felt a shiver run up my spine.

I did not trust this man. Not one bit. Something about him was fowl, almost demonic.

"No thanks, we can handle this our selves," I responded curtly, hoping to God that the stranger wouldn't approach us and insist on helping.

Thankfully, the man nodded and responded, "As you wish." With that, the man turned and left.

Actually I didn't see him leave. I wondered if it was the darkness playing tricks on my eyes, but it looked more like he turned around and disappeared.

I hoped I would never see that stranger again.

* * *

**Sebastian**

He awoke the young master in the morning and poured him tea, as per the habit they had practiced for the last century. This ritual had gone on for so long that Sebastian had a feeling that even if by some miniscule chance he one day no longer served Ciel as his butler, the demon would still start each morning fixing tea.

"What is the schedule for today?" Ciel asked as Sebastian dressed him. This habit, the butler really preferred to do without. Although Ciel hadn't aged more than a year in their time together since he became a demon, now that the duo had returned to the human world, Sebastian knew Ciel would begin aging again until he reached physical adulthood. No butler felt it necessary to dress a grown man, and if Ciel insisted on these childish rituals any longer, Sebastian wasn't sure he could keep from loosing his temper with the boy.

"Nothing, sir," Sebastian answered. "Today is your day off, you may spend it as you like. Perhaps you would like to go into the city? See the world?"

"No," Ciel answered flatly, "I have no desire to tour around a place as dismal as this."

"Very well, then," Sebastian bowed.

"What about you? Are you going to go off on your own again?" Ciel asked. Sebastian had to hold back a smirk. The young master absolutely hated it when Sebastian left his side. The boy was like a helpless infant without the butler around and wanted nothing more than to keep Sebastian on an even shorter leash than he already was. Especially now that Sebastian was taking several more liberties within their contract than he used to. There was no longer a societal need for him to play butler and he didn't intend to, regardless of the tantrums he knew would result. Once Ciel learned to fend for himself, Sebastian figured the boy wouldn't be as anxious on his own, at least that's what the demon hoped for. He grew tired of playing babysitter.

"Perhaps," Sebastian answered. "An acquaintance of mine wished to meet with me yesterday, though that depends on if she still requires the meeting."

"This isn't this Artemis girl you were talking about, was it?" Ciel asked, slightly annoyed.

"Indeed it is, Young Master," Sebastian replied. "I must admit that she is quite an interesting human."

"She has an angel's name," Ciel agreed.

"That is true," Sebastian nodded. Neither of them could admit it, but the ginger girl also bore some resemblance one they had met long ago when they were in the middle of a case, back when Ciel was suffering from amnesia.

"Fine, I suppose it's alright for you to leave," Ciel finally sighed. "It's not like I have plans for the day anyway."

Sebastian bowed and said, "Thank you sir." With that, he turned to leave the young master's room. It wasn't long after when he received a text message from Artie on his phone.

The butler grimaced. Of all things for humans to invent, this "texting" was by far the worst of concoctions. Was it really that difficult to dial a number and pick up a telephone? In any case, Sebastian opened the message, reading the words on the screen in Artie's voice.

"Do you like sushi?" it read. Sebastian chuckled. He didn't have a taste for human food, but sushi was one of the dishes that intrigued his senses. It was one of the few foods he didn't mind eating. The butler really…_enjoyed_ the way Artie seemed to know him so well, even if she had just met him.

Within seconds he replied with a "Of course."

Sebastian hadn't even made it down the hall when his phone buzzed again. As he opened the message, he made a mental note that having a device like this in his pocket was going to take some getting used to. The next text he read asked, "Do you want to go to sushi for lunch? If you haven't eaten yet, I mean…"

Chuckling to himself, Sebastian decided it was best to actually talk to Artemis as he dialed her phone number. Within a couple of rings, Artie's voice picked up and answered, "Oh! Hey!"

"I don't know if it's possible to go to a singular piece of sushi, but I know of a good restaurant near campus that serves sushi," Sebastian stated. "And no, I have not eaten yet."

The butler's wit was met with a dry, "Haha. Very funny, Augustus." Sebastian had yet to figure out why Artie occasionally called him that, but he knew if he asked the woman what she meant her only reply would be a scolding for not having read that book she recommended yet. "Anyway," Artie chirped, "You're talking about the place on Mainstreet right?"

"Yes ma'am," Sebastian replied. "Shall I meet you there in an hour?"

"It's a date!" Artie replied, and the statement was quickly met with a series of disgruntled stammers as the woman backtracked suddenly, "I mean—It's not—It doesn't have to be—we're just…getting lunch. It's not a date—I mean it could be if—um…"

"Artemis Grace," Sebastian said in a low voice. He felt something similar to a flutter in his stomach as he spoke. This indistinct feeling was just enough to assure Sebastian of the one suspicion about Artemis that he had, and it brought forth a feeling of relief along with other emotions that would have left him weak in the knees had he been human. "I would be honored to share a lunch date with you. And before you answer, I would like to clarify that this lunch date is, in fact, a date. A date in which we sit together and enjoy each other's company while also quietly interviewing one another as potential romantic companions. A date that just also happens to include lunch. Now, would you be so kind as to grant me this opportunity?"

"Oh. Wow," Artie responded breathlessly. She was so quiet after that, Sebastian wondered if she hung up the phone. Was that too much perhaps? The demon was never one to understand the concept of romance or any sort of pursuit in that area. Even after he met his mate for the first time…if anything, he had been a major turn-off for her.

Artemis eventually did catch her breath and answered, "Yes! I would love to! Um, so I'll see you in an hour then?"

"It's a date," Sebastian answered, mimicking the woman's earlier statement. As he hung up, he couldn't help but feel a strange sense of euphoria.

* * *

**Great Britain: 1888**

**Ciel**

Their investigation led the duo to an abandoned factory in the country. Ciel moved through the building carefully, staying close to Sebastian. The demon sensed something fowl within the factory, and Ciel was never one to venture far from Sebastian when even he was unnerved.

"Do you sense the girls?" Ciel asked.

"Yes sir, though I regret to inform you, I am only sensing half the number of souls than were kidnapped," Sebastian explained. Ciel nodded, wondering if this was the work of the very people he was chasing after in revenge.

Without warning, the light from the torch in Sebastian's hand went out, leaving them in total darkness. Sebastian placed a firm hand on Ciel's shoulder as if to alert him of his presence. But the tightness of his grip…Ciel felt his own soul being watched.

"Master, do not leave my side," Sebastian warned. "There are others here."

"Others?" Ciel asked, not sure if he wanted to know what the others were.

As if to answer his question, there was a low, droning hiss followed by a series of cackles and chatters much like the sounds hyenas made. The hissing grew louder and turned into what sounded like whispers. Sebastian in response let out a very inhuman growl.

"Filthy commoners," the butler spat. "Do they honestly believe they can escape the underworld without a contract? Do not speak, Young Master, if you do, they will sense your soul if they haven't already. I expect there will be some Reapers here to collect these idiots."

Ciel wanted so desperately to ask what Sebastian was talking about, but even he wouldn't defy his butler's orders when the demon was like this. Especially if Sebastian meant to say that there were other demons present.

Sebastian's torch burst aflame once again, but shadows danced along the walls around them before materializing into red-skinned demons that seemed to be struggling to maintain any sort of physical presence.

"If it issssssn't yooooou," one hissed.

"The darkessst one and hissssss prey," another added, a forked tongue flicking between its teeth.

"I want to tasssssste it," the first hissed, almost slithering towards them. Sebastian's eyes glowed a bright red as he stepped in front of Ciel, his true form emerging from his body. The butler bared his sharp teeth and growled.

"I'll rip your throats out, pesky underlings," Sebastian hissed in response.

Before Ciel had time to process what was happening, all parties present were interrupted when a series of screams erupted from the center of the factory.

"The prisssssonerssss!" the first underling shrieked, retracting from Sebastian and running towards the source of the screams.

"Don't let them esssscape!" other demons cried out. Sebastian scooped Ciel up in his arms and followed the demons. Ciel clutched Sebastian's coat and gulped, hoping his butler would make it to the girls before the underlings did.

More over, he hoped this wasn't the way he was going to die.

* * *

**United States: Year 2014**

**Artie**

I was on a date. I was actually on a real date!

I was in a cute dress with leggings and a cardigan, Krysta curled my hair, I had make up on, I actually received complements on my way out and Maddie was not only functioning but approved my outfit as just a step above presentable, and I was on a date! And my date liked sushi! Oh, this was perfect!

The wait for our food was kind of long, but I had a feeling that was because I ordered a dish with smoked salmon. And Sebastian took the liberty to make fun of me for it. On the bright side, it was All-You-Can-Eat and he seemed to find my starvation kind of cute.

We were in the middle of a conversation about nothing, laughing about absolutely nothing when our food came out, and we were giggling so uncontrollably that we didn't even notice the waitress set out plates on the table.

"Did you actually say that to him?" Sebastian asked, trying to catch his breath. I nodded my head, finally remembering that we were talking about my last attempt at any sort of relationship. It was second semester of freshman year and Krysta tried hooking me up with one of her friends whom I developed a mild crush on, but when he brought me back to his room, I got so nervous about doing anything with any sort of boy that when he started messing with the buttons on his jeans I panicked and let out all the built up gases inside me in the form of one loud and smelly fart. The kid got a little grossed out and in my moment of sheer terror I whimpered, "Maybe God's reminding you to put on a condom?" before he swiftly excused himself to the bathroom and I sprinted back to my room and cried in a confessional the next morning. It was safe to say that I didn't see that kid again.

I don't remember how that topic of conversation came up (I think it was me embarrassing myself by proclaiming the fact that I never expected any sort of guy to find me remotely attractive) but Sebastian somehow got me to tell the story and now I was laughing my ass off on what I once considered the most horrifying experiences of my life.

"Yeah, yeah I did!" I laughed hysterically. "I mean, if you're going to sin, you might as well be smart about it! That's where my train of thought went I guess!"

"So what did you say in the confessional then?" Sebastian asked, teasingly. "'Forgive me, Father for I have farted on one of God's children!'"

"Oh shut up!" I giggled, playfully punching him in the arm. "It was really embarrassing okay? And the confessional part was for the making out with a total stranger, I was too horrified to even mention the farting."

Sebastian chuckled and shook his head. We then dug into the food before he looked back up at me and asked, "So I take it you're Catholic?"

Of course, when he asked the question, my face was stuffed to the brim with rice, salmon, and shrimp in roll form that I struggled for form the word, "Yeah."

Sebastian nodded, his gaze drifting slightly as if he were in deep thought. They then flashed back towards me and fell on my exposed collar. He then pointed at the corner of my tattoo and asked, "I take it that's what the cross is for?"

"Oh!" I jumped at the question. I then lifted my cardigan off my collar to expose the entirety of my tattoo. It was a cross, drawn to resemble more of a compass rose, with pointed ends and additional tips added to the corners where the T-shape met. It sat on the left side of my chest, a little be above where my heart was. "Yeah," I said, looking down at my tattoo. "Yeah it is. You could say it's what my personal testimony looks like if it were a picture."

"May I ask what it is in words?" Sebastian then asked, leaning closer to me. I had to fight back a blush as I shrugged.

"Well, it certainly isn't the most interesting testimony," I admitted, but Sebastian shrugged as if asking me to continue so I did. "I dunno, I grew up in a very Catholic, and _very _Irish family. It was always about church, always about God—unless it was St. Patty's day, of course—and I just felt a little lost in it all. I felt like I was just one insignificant being out of many others and that I didn't have a purpose in His plan. But then there was one year at a youth convention where the speaker did a sermon about God's unconditional love—that everyone He created was important and that we just had to find our own way to His Kingdom, our own way to live life and lover others in His name. The speaker described it as God placing a compass in our hearts for us to follow and everything finally made sense to me, so that's why I asked the tattoo artist to make the cross look like a compass and to put it over my heart. Just as a reminder to myself."

"It's a beautiful story," Sebastian noted, his eyes fixated on my tattoo. He reached over to lift my cardigan up a little more to get one last look at the cross, his thumb caressing my skin slightly before he let go of the sweater and sat back in his chair. There was a long pause of silence as we continued eating before I managed to muster up the courage to ask my own question for him.

"What about you? Do you follow any religion? It's fine if you don't—I'm pretty open minded, I mean, whatever your way of thinking is, I don't judge—uh—"

Sebastian chuckled at my inability to get on any sort of deep personal level with my question and waved my stutters off with a smooth, "It's quite alright, Artie, I know what you meant by the question."

"Okay," I sighed, sitting back in my chair. "But anyway, what do you believe?"

"I do not think there is anything to believe in as I am certain of God's existence," Sebastian explained. He crossed his arms and glanced up at the ceiling, almost glared at it even as he added, "But you could say that I am in deep…_questioning_ with your Lord."

"Oh?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. I had to admit that I was surprised Sebastian was willing to admit something that personal. I knew from experience that telling anyone that you were questioning your faith wasn't easy, especially to someone you barely knew. "If I may, can I ask what it is you're questioning?"

"Everything, really," Sebastian asked. I held my breath at that, suspecting things were about to get deep. But Sebastian looked at me and smiled, stating, "The details are for another time, perhaps date three or four? In any case, I will say that I have been in question with His ways of measuring worth, and I have been questioning…the world's eager…willingness to follow Him."

"Oh," I answered quietly. I slunk back in my seat and before I had time to even filter my thoughts, I blurted out, "Well, if you have questions for God, would you like to come to church or bible study with me? It's nondenominational and pretty laid back, although some of the folks take the bible literally so sometimes it can get weird when we're going through Old Testament, but everyone's really nice and a lot of us have been in question of the Lord too so you wouldn't—"

"Artemis," Sebastian said gently as his way of telling me that I was speaking a million miles a minute. I kicked myself mentally as I covered my mouth with my hand to keep from saying anymore. This was the third time I had gone off on a wild tangent like that and this time I brought up the whole church topic when I probably shouldn't have. Part of me expected him to call it quits on the date but he simply smiled and took the hand that covered my mouth into his and said softly, "I do not think I am something you want in church. Or any holy setting, really."

I relaxed suddenly and scoffed at his doubt, "Oh, don't be silly! If there is one thing that I have learned in life it's that God loves all His children and He wants all of us to get to know Him. Just come to service with me tomorrow and see how you like it. I won't make you go but it's worth it to give it a shot."

"Yes but I'm not—" Sebastian started, but he closed his eyes in what almost looked like distress for a moment before he sighed and asked, "Do you really wish for me to go?"

I furrowed my eyebrows as I gazed into Sebastian's deep eyes. They were dark but looked like a red velvet color. I didn't think that was a possible eye color to have, but it was so beautiful on him. And they looked sad too, as if he was yearning for something but didn't deem himself worthy of whatever it was he searched for. Silly me thought it was God's love at the time, but only now to I know that it was so much more than that.

"Just one service," I pleaded, placing my free hand on top of his. He then added his tattooed hand to the pile of hands and we stared into each other's eyes for a long moment before he nodded.

"Alright," he agreed, sighing with a playful smile as if I were a child trying to get her way and succeeding. "One service."

"Cool!" I cheered. "And I promise it won't be too cult-like. It's a pretty laid-back, come-as-you-are church. My friends Trent and Casey go there and they're about as liberal as it gets.

"Well, I look forward to it," Sebastian nodded, and with that we finished our sushi, paid the bill, and walked out to a snow-covered parking lot.

"Ugh, more snow?" I complained. We already had several inches on the ground from the last snowfall; I didn't want to see anymore of the white blankets.

"Oh but look how white it is," Sebastian said romantically. Then he turned a teasing smile at me, his rose-colored eyes sparkling as he joked, "It matches your hair so well!"

I playfully shoved him as I brushed the falling snowflakes off my head. Sebastian in turn shoved me back and before we knew it we were throwing snowballs at each other in the parking lot. It was a good thing I chose boots and leggings to go with my outfit because if I hadn't I would have been freezing and I undoubtedly would have slipped and fallen. Well, I almost did a few times, but it was a bit more graceful than if I had slipped in heels. In the midst of our snowball fight, Sebastian managed to sneak up behind me and wrap his arms around my waist, lifting me off the ground and spinning me as I shrieked. He set me down, holding me in his arms his laugh and warm breath tickling my ear.

When I turned back to look at him, I couldn't help but laugh at the mounds of snow building up on his head and shoulders, starkly contrasting his dark coat and even darker hair. Sebastian gave me a quizzical look before I reached up and brushed the snow dustings off his head, he then glanced down at some of the snow dust that fell onto his arm to which he saw what I was laughing at. "Oh," he realized, before he broke out into another bout of soft chuckles. His arms fell from my waist and I too let mine hang at my sides as I stared up at him, my blue eyes gazing into his red ones. It was the first time I realized just how tall he was, he had over a head's length on me. I smiled and reached forward to hold his hands and his face lit up at my touch—not the kind of lit up expression that resembles a match being struck in the darkness, startling the shadows in excitement, but his expression lit much like the way a warm fire lights a room, bringing comfort to all those in its presence.

"I just remembered that I do not know where your church is," Sebastian stated softly, pulling me out of my trance. I jumped slightly, remembering our earlier conversation and nodded, but before I could give him directions, he added, "But I do know where your place of residence is. Plus, the roads will be dangerous to drive on alone tomorrow morning, would you like me to pick you up?"

I felt my cheeks flush as I shrugged, "Yeah, sure, I mean if you want to I don't want to make you drive farther than you have to…"

"It would be an honor, Artemis Grace," Sebastian whispered. I gulped slightly. Oh, I may not have liked my name, but the more he said it, the less I minded hearing it roll off his tongue. It was starting to sound beautiful in my ears.

"Okay," I answered, my balance faltering slightly. If Sebastian noticed my swooning, he didn't make note of it and for that I was grateful.

"I look forward to it," he said as he walked me to my car. I refused to let go of his hand, even as I stepped into my car I held onto it tightly. Sebastian smiled and pulled it to his lips, much like he did the first day we met. "Until tomorrow, Artemis Grace."

* * *

**Great Britain: Year 1888**

**Sebastian**

It was as if all of hell had broken loose. Literally. As they ran in search of the kidnapped children, Sebastian found himself fending off pathetic excuses for demons and the reapers that eventually showed up. Part of a reaper's job was to take care of any lower-class demon that escaped the underworld without possession of a contract. Thought Sebastian was not only one of the higher-ranked demons who could enter the world of the living at their leisure, he not only held a contract but still he had reapers attacking him right and left.

In the midst of the chaos, Sebastian and Ciel managed to locate some of the girls and lead them to safety. Sebastian tried to leave his young master with the girls when he reentered the factory but the boy was stubborn as ever. And those blasted reapers…that night was one of the very _very_ rare occasions that the butler was actually pleased to see Grell Sutcliffe.

"Grell would you _please_ tell your colleagues that I am not one of the offenders in this case," Sebastian found himself pleading as Grell wrapped his arms and legs around Sebastian while three other reapers readied their scythes for attack.

"Oh, Bassy, I just love it when you're under pressure! You exude such a marvelous scent!" Grell squealed. Sebastian had half a mind to wonder what sort of scent the reaper was talking about. His scent did not change. It's not like he sweated like other creatures did. Grell finally released Sebastian of the hug (or molestation, could have been either) and called the other reapers off. Well, that was one less distraction Sebastian had to deal with.

Of course with the distraction of reapers going after his life was replaced with the distraction of Grell going after Sebastian's nonexistent affection. The butler almost wished he had the other reapers attacking him again.

They managed to evacuate most of the girls in the first trip because they were running around the factory freely, but Sebastian wasn't willing to leave the factory right away, even when most of the underlings were restrained. There was something still that ebbed away at his mind. When they reached the room where the girls had presumably been held captive, there were barred cages made of steal lining the room along with evidence that the girls had been held in those cages. But two bars on one side of each cage had been bent away from each other at almost ninety-degree angles in a way to create a hole just large enough for a young girl to crawl through.

Someone had broken the children out of those cages.

A loud hiss caught Sebastian's attention and he turned to find two underlings who had been hiding within the shadows attacking something in the rafters with unusual determination. Their hisses sounded more like fearful screeches to Sebastian's ears. Grell swiftly took his death scythe and cut through the rafters, both exterminating the underlings and causing what little support for the roof that was left to come crashing down on them. The butler yelped and grabbed Ciel and the two girls still with them and ran out of the way of the collapsing roof, dodging the rubble effortlessly, but still there was too much to dodge, even for Sebastian so he threw the three in his arms to the ground and shielded them with his body.

All were still for a long, loud, tense moment.

When the dust cleared, Sebastian pushed the rubble off of him and he took the two girls to safety with the others. He then asked Ciel to stay put with the girls (to which the young master swiftly protested and came with Sebastian anyway) before he began searching the rubble for any sign of life.

"Sebastian, what are you doing? Those were the only girls left in the factory. The others were killed by those underling demons like you said," Ciel stated in an almost pleading manor. The boy could not yet sense what Sebastian could, and the fact was staring Lord Phantomhive straight in the face.

"It is not the girls I am looking for, Master," Sebastian responded curtly, looking for Grell's beacon of red-hair for the soul purpose of finding what the underlings were attacking.

"Then what are you looking for?" Ciel asked.

"Someone released those children from the cages," was all the butler said in response. It wasn't long after that when Sebastian did find Grell, pulling the bruised reaper to his feet by the hair. Grell whined in protest, to which he only got an annoyed sigh from Sebastian in response, "This is your own fault, I hope you know. Goodness, you are a reckless reaper."

Before Sebastian could say anymore, his eyes caught a hint of movement underneath the rubble Grell had been laying on. Tossing the reaper aside Sebastian knelt down and dug through the rubble until he found a tuft of red hair. It wasn't red like Grell's, which was startlingly unnatural, but it was a ginger color, like the soft orange trademark to the Irish. Sebastian's hand pushed rubble out of the way of the hair until he came across the face of a young woman who, remarkably, was still breathing.

Ciel's eyes widened and ordered, "Sebastian, get her out of there!" but the young master didn't need to order his butler to get him to do so. There was a nagging feeling that tugged in his chest when he saw the woman's face and he experienced a bizarrely compelling need to free her from any sort of danger.

Sebastian managed to remove most of the woman's restraints by the time her eyes fluttered open and she groaned in pain, rolling over slightly. She attempted to sit up, but got stuck on something, so she shifted her weight onto her side and began wriggling herself free when she looked up at the earl and butler who stood before her. Large, deep blue eyes widened behind dark eyelashes and tousled hair.

"You're…" she started with a crisp voice, but appeared to be at a loss for words. Sebastian smiled politely and held out his hand.

"I admire your bravery, saving those children on your own," Sebastian said courteously.

The woman tugged at something and pulled herself free before she finally stood up. When she did, Sebastian felt his jaw drop subconsciously. For one, the woman was dressed like a man, albeit her clothes did more to accentuate her curves rather than to conceal them. Such an appearance was not befitting of a lady in this era, but that is not what threw Sebastian off guard.

Gazing into her eyes for such a period of time and then seeing her full stature caused something within Sebastian to stir. He felt as if he had been struck in the head with a death scythe and indistinct feelings within him began striking his chest like knives, invoking what Sebastian wondered was something that resembled human emotion—lust perhaps? It certainly wasn't love, demons could not love.

One thing was for sure, the woman Sebastian was now staring at was undoubtedly his mate.

But what made the butler's stomach drop was not the fact that he had found his mate, surprisingly. Oh no, his heart fell before those emotions flooded his body for as the woman bent over to stand up, two large white wings unfurled from behind her, falling forward before they stretched straight behind her as the woman flattened her back and stood up straight in an attempt to work any cramps out of her muscles.

His mate was an angel.

Before Sebastian could do anything to defend himself against the divine being, the angel smiled brightly as if she knew the butler, "Thank you for helping me out of that mess."

"What is your name?" Sebastian found himself asking before he had any time to process what was happening to him.

The angel smiled even wider and giggled before she hugged herself and answered, "They call me Artemis."


	3. Demon

Hm. That was a lot longer and a lot fluffier than I intended. Oops.

Oh well! I finally have an "Oh shit!" moment at the end to signify that everything is going to happen!

Also the whole Time skipping thing probably makes absolutely no sense, especially since I didn't put anything at the end like I initially intended. But it WILL! Probably by next chapter because I want that to like actually start explaining things! Except it probably won't until much later…hnnnnngh. Just think Doctor Who. Maybe. Try to. Agh, I'd reference a character but then it would all give it away for yooooooou! *flails and dies*

Anyway, here's the next chapter!

(Also, another disclaimer that I probably should have put last chapter is that, yes, I know Sebastian is OOC…like a lot. and very. Especially in modern-day scenes. But that too will also make sense! Also he's really grumpy in the canon time period, but my reasoning for that is, well, if you had not desire to ever meet someone you know you'll be stuck with for all eternity, but then you do meet them and not only find out that you're actually kind of physically attracted to them but they are also a creature/type of person you're supposed to detest, AND you aren't even supposed to feel any sort of emotional attachment to individuals like that, you'd be kind of pissy too!)

(I also like to think that modern day Sebastian with Artie is like everyday Sebastian with cats. I also like to picture him playing with Artie's massive mound of cat when he meets her family. Ah! I really want to write that but then this story will be all fluff and no plot so I might just write fluffy one shots for this! AAAAAH!)

(Oh, and I definitely decided that I'm going to up the rating for this later on because I thought of a heart-wrenching idea that I definitely have to write and you're all going to hate me for it but hopefully-kind of-maybe still love my story anyway? Or just find it mildly entertaining? Eh, I definitely love what this is turning into and I still hate myself for this idea.)

LOL Sebastian in a church…that thought just crossed my mind…

NO, Sebastian in a CONFESSIONAL: "Forgive me, Father for I have sinned…because I'm actually a soul-sucking demon from the flaming pits of hell…I don't know how you're going to fix that one so good luck."

Also, LILIES *sob* (Don't worry about it)

I'm going to stop now.

ENJOI

* * *

**Great Britain: Year 1888**

**Sebastian**

Sometimes the demon wondered if Ciel was out to personally victimize his butler. First he hires the servants, then he orders Sebastian to take care of that blasted demon hound (although Pluto eventually grew on him, he didn't exactly miss the beast either), and then the young master's soul nearly slipped away from Sebastian's hands after he exacted his revenge and now Sebastian was trying to come up with a way to recreate that revenge to fulfill the contract.

So but of course Ciel would suggest taking the lost angel back to the manor.

"I assume you can hide your wings, correct?" the young master asked her as she stepped into the carriage.

In response, Artemis folded her wings against her back before they promptly disappeared.

Ciel nodded and crossed his arms, sighing, "I do not know where you are from but that outfit is unbecoming of women. Sebastian, I believe we have something for her to wear if you could find a dress or something when we get back to the manor."

"Yes sir," Sebastian said as Artemis's face contorted in disgust.

"Excuse you?" she snapped, but after a pointed glare from Ciel she groaned but didn't say more, careful not to overstay her welcome.

Well, if anything she'd certainly make things more interesting.

Granted, that fact also had Sebastian quite uneasy.

When they reached the manor, Artemis burst out of the carriage without even accepting the butler's assistance. Pesky angel. You'd think her kind would at least be well-versed in social customs in the human world. Angela/Ash at least was. Then again, Angela/Ash was the rare case of a more ancient breed of angel. Perhaps the angels Sebastian was more familiar with had spent too much time in seclusion doing whatever they pleased. It wouldn't surprise him.

Artemis was at least courteous enough to follow her host into the manor, and when Sebastian opened the door for her and Ciel, the angel took a few steps in before she paused and looked around the room, her blue eyes sparkling in awe.

"This is beautiful," she said in a daze.

"This is the home of the Earl Phantomhive," Sebastian explained, "and if you follow me I will show you to your room."

Artemis glanced sideways at Sebastian and smiled. The demon in turn stiffened and fought to scowl back at her while a shiver ran up his spine. It wasn't difficult for angels to distinguish demons from other beings, surely Artemis knew what Sebastian was, and yet she did nothing to call him out. It was possibly more unnerving to him than if she had attacked him as soon as she was freed from the rubble.

Her blue eyes left Sebastian and fell on Ciel, she bobbed her head as if to bow and said, "Thank you very much for you hospitality, Lord Phantomhive. I couldn't be more grateful."

Ciel nodded in the faintest of acknowledgement before saying, "Sebastian, take her to her room and find a more suitable outfit for our guest, please."

"As you wish, my lord," Sebastian said. "Come with me."

Artemis hurried to Sebastian's side as he led her up the stairs, but the butler couldn't help but notice how distracted the woman got, stopping every few steps to gaze at the art on the wall, or peer through an open door to see the room on the other side. Curiosity such as this was something Sebastian was accustomed to, and had she been an ordinary guest, Sebastian would have offered to take Artemis on a tour of the house. He knew he should, as were the customs of Phantomhive hospitality, but something fowl formed knots in the pit of the demon's stomach and the fact was that he couldn't wait to be as far away from the angel as possible.

One good thing about her being his mate was that her senses were not attuned in the way his were, she would not know that they were a mated pair and he could easily dispose of her when the time came.

"This is gorgeous," Artemis said once she caught up to Sebastian again. For some reason, it seemed she was trying to make small talk and the butler wanted nothing to do with it.

"Indeed it is," Sebastian said curtly. He then came to the guest room and opened the door. "And this is where you will stay. There is a restroom connected to this room and you can use that to wash up. I will bring you nightwear and a change of clothes for the morning shortly."

Artemis nodded then, to his surprise, asked, "So where do you live?"

"I live in the servant's quarters just as all servants do," Sebastian explained. Artemis nodded and took a couple steps into the room. The butler thought he was home free but still the angel turned around again, placing her hands behind her back.

"It's down stairs, I take it?" she guessed. The butler nodded. "Also, I don't know when I'll be able to return home—like I said, the events that led me to getting here were the result of a complete accident—is there maybe some way I can help out around here? Earn my stay?"

"You are a guest of the Phantomhives," Sebastian recited. "If is of upmost importance to us that we extend only the best hospitality. If you truly do wish to work for us, that is a matter you should take up with the young master."

Artemis bit her lip at that. For whatever reason, the angel appeared to have a mild disliking towards Ciel, despite his friendly persona and her (mostly) polite demeanor thus far. From what Sebastian could tell, she hardly said anything to the young master on the carriage ride here, yet she was attempting small talk with the demon butler.

But what the angel said next surprised Sebastian even more than her apparent distaste for the young Earl: "You don't like me do you."

The butler, for the first time in his long life, was at a loss for words, especially in this time period. It never mattered what a butler thought of his master's guests and other than his silence, he gave no cues to Artemis that would suggest he absolutely detested her. But she hadn't even showed visible signs of noticing what he was, such a statement coming from her certainly shocked him.

When Sebastian didn't answer, Artemis sighed heavily and unfurled her wings as if to make a point as she sighed heavily and said, "Look, I know this must be…incredibly inconvenient for you. And I'm sorry."

"Pardon my rudeness, but I do not think you do," Sebastian retorted in a low voice. Artemis shrugged and nodded.

"Perhaps. But still, I'm sorry," she apologized in a low voice.

"Do you even know what I am, Angel?" Sebastian snapped suddenly. He couldn't contain the anger that boiled over within him any longer. "If you are trying to play coy, do not bother, such naivety will not make me detest you any less."

Artemis jumped slightly and gazed down at the floor. If the demon had known better, he might say she looked hurt by his comments. After a pause, the butler began to turn to leave, yet the angel still had one last thing to say: "It is not that I'm playing dumb about what you are, Sebastian. I just don't think it matters."

"Don't think it matters?" Sebastian snarled, his eyes beginning to glow. "I am a demon of hell and you are a holy angel. Do not act like we can travel freely between our worlds."

Artemis shrugged the remarks off and said, "Humans do. I don't see why we can't."

"You must wish to be cast away from your realm if you already haven't with such heresy," the butler mused. This angel both repelled him and drew him close between her maniacal banter and the undeniable fact that she was his mate. It was disgusting.

The angel still seemed unfazed by Sebastian: "Not at all. I just choose to believe in my God who loves all of His creation, even the ones trapped within shadows."

"You must've been misinformed, I am not one of those creations," Sebastian stated, giving Artemis a sideways glance.

It was almost as if she expected such an answer for she smiled in return and teased, "I'd be willing to make a bet with you on that."

"In any case," Sebastian said quickly before Artemis could distract him any more. "You are still an angel and I a demon, I'd rather not step on your toes and I'd suggest you stay out of my way. Nevertheless, you're an honored guest of the Phantomhives and I will do my best to treat you as such. Now if you'll excuse me, I have my own duties to attend to. I will bring you up a change of clothes and nightwear shortly."

The angel nodded so Sebastian turned to leave. He was just about to close the door when she called out, "Sebastian?"

The butler held his breath. Mate or not, he was going to rip this woman's throat out if she kept talking.

"Yes?" Sebastian asked, his patience wearing thin.

Artemis looked into the butler's eyes for a moment, her lips quivering as if she was struggling to find the right words to say. In the end, she gave up on whatever it was she wanted to voice and instead bowed, "Thank you again. For everything."

"Do not thank me," Sebastian said in a low voice. "I was just fulfilling orders."

* * *

**United States: Year 2014**

**Artie**

I'm not sure it was a good idea to take Sebastian to church.

I mean, it's not like anything bad happened, but I could tell he was _extremely_ uncomfortable. He didn't sing any of the songs—I didn't expect that he would—though he listened intently to the sermon that morning, absorbing every word the pastor preached. But he held my hand tightly the entire time, so tightly it almost cut off the circulation in my fingers at one point.

And of course it was communion today. He was a trooper, that was for sure, but I couldn't help but feel undeniably guilty.

But of course, Sebastian was nothing short of Prince Charming on the way home. It was quiet between us at first but as soon as Sebastian merged onto the highway he took a breath as if to speak and I slunk into my seat.

"That was thoroughly enjoyable, Artie, thank you for inviting me," he said so smoothly that if it had not been for the raw feeling in my hand still, I would have believed what he said.

"Oh, Sebastian," I sighed, covering my face with my hands. "I'm so sorry."

Sebastian glanced at me for a second before he turned his eyes back to the road, furrowing his eyebrows together. "What do you mean? I said I enjoyed this morning, did I not?"

"Well, yeah, but, you just seemed really uncomfortable. If you were, I didn't mean to force you into that," I explained rubbing my hand subconsciously. Sebastian caught my movement and he gave a small nod of realization.

"That," he noted. "Forgive me, I did not mean to hurt your hand. But…you are right; I'll admit that I do not feel I belong in a holy setting. That does not mean I did not enjoy the morning. I am grateful you invited me to join in that experience with you."

"Oh," I nodded. "Well, I'm glad you came."

"As am I," Sebastian agreed. "Well, since we are out, would you care to join me for lunch? We're quite close to were I live."

"Really?" I asked, trying to hide a smile. I looked out the window as we pulled off the highway. Oh my. They lived in the rich neighborhoods. And I don't mean they lived in what my mom called the Land of Three Car Garages were couples lived in houses big enough for families of ten. I mean we were in Mansion Estates. Well, the real name for the subdivision was Garden Estates, but I mean, all of these houses looked like they belonged to millionaires. My jaw dropped and before I had a chance to filter my thoughts, I gasped, "_This _is where you live?"

Sebastian chuckled, at my reaction, "Well, Ciel is an Earl after all."

"Is this like where you guys lived back in London?" I asked as we pulled into the driveway. "You guys are rich!"

"It was actually quite larger than this," Sebastian explained. "And it is Ciel who holds the wealth. In a way, I actually work for him."

I nodded as he led me into the mansion. The largest building I had ever been into was one of the academic buildings and I'm pretty sure the entryway here was larger than the lecture halls in there.

I took a few steps, subconsciously spinning around myself to take in the view of the room. "This is beautiful," I breathed, smiling a little. I then turned to face Sebastian.

He stood stiffly at the door with his arms behind his back, his rose-colored eyes fixated on me, waves of emotions forcing their way to the surface of his eyes. I cocked my head to the side, about to ask him what was wrong when another voice spoke behind us.

"Sebastian, who is this?" a boy asked. I spun around to face a scrawny kids walking down the stairs that led to the entryway we currently stood in. Sebastian stepped to my side, gesturing to me with a very poised smile, pushing away whatever was hidden behind his mask.

"Young master, I would like to introduce you to Artemis Grace Thomas. She will be dining with us this afternoon," he said. As always, my name rolled off his tongue like silk and I was really starting to like the sound of it.

"Artemis, was it?" Ciel asked, narrowing his eyes—or…eye, one of them was covered with an eye patch—and suddenly my name didn't sound nearly as nice. "Strange name."

I pressed my lips together in a _very_ forced smile, though I'm sure it looked more like a flattened line. I could see why this kid put off just about all of my friends who had met him. Even without his supposed snide remarks, Ciel had a very…unnerving presence about him. "Please, just call me Artie,"

"Alright," Ciel shrugged. "Sebastian, I don't have a preference for lunch today, see to the needs of miss Artemis—"

"Artie," I corrected.

If it was possible to hear a nerve snap, I would have heard one coming from the kid's brain. "See to the needs of miss _Artie_ this afternoon."

"Of course sir," Sebastian nodded. "Ma'am, if you will follow me."

Ciel turned to walk back up the stairs and I watched him as he left. Something about him told me that I shouldn't take my eyes off of him. I was so distracted that when Sebastian stopped to open the door to the kitchen I bumped right into him. He simply smiled and allowed me through the doors before he passed through them himself. As soon as the doors closed, his stiff-back posture relaxed a little and his poised, butler-like façade melted away. It was a relief to see my casual Sebastian again.

"So…are you like his butler or something?" I asked as I took a seat in a bar stool by the counter. "I mean you were certainly acting like one. All prim and proper and such."

Oh, it was so good to see Sebastian smile and chuckle at my banter. I hadn't realized how tense I got myself when he put on that mask, especially with that pained expression he gave me.

"Yes, you could call it that," Sebastian said. "Though really, it's more of a situation in which we are in contract with each other. I serve as a protector and cannot leave his side. My position just happens to lead me to act like his butler at times."

"Alright then," I nodded, suddenly very confused. "I have no idea what sort of contracts you guys do for employment over in England."

"It's not an English custom," Sebastian chuckled. "It is quite difficult to explain."

"But aren't you a little young to…you know…be signing soul-binding contracts like that?" I asked. Apparently whatever I said was hilarious because Sebastian broke out into such a hysterical laughter I thought he was going to fall on the ground.

"You have quite the interesting choice of words!" he noted. I didn't know where exactly he was going with that, but before I could figure it out, he answered my question, "And not at all. I have a lot of experience with these sort of…business dealings, if you will."

"How old are you?" I asked, the butler smiled.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," he teased.

"Oh come on, I need to know these things," I pushed. "It's going to be the first question my mom asks when I tell you about you."

"Well how old do you think I am?" he asked me. That was a weird question.

"I dunno…like twenty-two?" I guessed.

"Then I am twenty-two," Sebastian responded, though he pressed his lips together as if he were trying to hide the laughter that resulted from some sort of joke I didn't know about. Then, suddenly he stopped what he was doing and looked up at me with the uttermost seriousness and asked, "You're going to tell your mother about me?"

"Well, yeah," I said. "You're a guy. And we went on a date. And you went to church with me. And now I'm sitting at your house eating lunch with you and your…boss, friend, or whatever Ciel is to you. I have to tell my mom about you at some point. One thing is for sure is that Mom will need to hear about you before my dad and brothers hear about you."

"Why, I'm flattered," Sebastian said. I couldn't tell if he was teasing or being sincere. I suspected both. "So you have brothers?"

"Yes, both younger," I explained. "Chris is eighteen, he just started college this year. Tristan is fifteen."

"Quite average names compared to yours," Sebastian joked and I sat back in my chair and scoffed in exasperation.

"I don't know how they came up with the name!" I groaned. "I guess they used up all their creativity with me. At least that's what I always say when my brothers make fun of my name. That got them going."

Sebastian chuckled as he sliced the vegetables. "If I may, would you care to tell me more about your family? I'm curious."

"Hm," I thought on that for a bit. "Well, my mom's name is Karen. She's from the Chicago area of Illinois and she and my dad, William, were high school sweethearts. He moved to the U.S. from Ireland with my grandparents when he was a little boy. They moved around a lot when they were first married but eventually settled in back in Chicago so they could be near my grandparents. And then my brothers and I were real pranksters growing up. Actually, it was my grandpa—my dad's dad, my mom's dad passed away when I was a baby—who influenced most of our mischief and…I'm sorry, am I rambling again?"

I hadn't noticed I had gone off in a tangent within my own world until I glanced over at Sebastian, fixated on his cooking and I distracted myself enough to wonder if I should help him. But Sebastian just stood there looking quite bemused as if he enjoyed listening to me.

"No, not at all, please do continue." Sebastian answered. "Your family sounds lovely."

I smiled to myself, but stood up and walked around the counter to help Sebastian, but in a fleeting moment of courageousness and zero judgment, I stood up on my toes to plant a small peck of my lips to his cheek. I didn't realize what I had done until I lowered myself and noticed my arms wrapped around one of his and he jumped, swiveling his head to stare at me in shock.

"Uh," I gagged. Ooooh I just made things really awkward for myself! "I'm sorry, I didn't realize what I was—I mean—I meant to offer help with the food but then—it just sort of…happened…"

My stutters started to trail off as Sebastian's shocked expression softened, his red velvet eyes sparkling. He lifted a hand to my cheek, caressing it lightly with his thumb as he pulled my face towards his. My heart fluttered in my chest and I tried to continue apologizing, but as our lips drew closer, all I could manage was a weary, "Oh…okay."

* * *

**Trent**

It was a boy day.

And good thing too because Trent found that he could be most intimidating on boy days. And not just "I'm so tough look at me" intimidating, but when Trent was intimidating on boy days, it crossed lines into "Oh you think I'm cute in this feminine body? Let me give you a death glare that will beat you into next week before I actually lay my fist on you" intimidating.

And it wasn't that Trent got particularly grumpy on boy days, it just so happened that people tended to give him more respect-out-of-intimidation on boy days. Apparently he just had that air about him, he didn't know why. He was pretty harmless, he thought. Sometimes he wondered if this intimidation came from the fact that he had the biceps of a god sitting next to lumps of fat on his chest that were so large that they even stuck out a bit after being squished down by a compressor (though Trent had to admit that he liked his lumps of fat. They were quite flattering on him during girl days).

In any case, Trent was particularly enjoying this intimidation factor he held on boy days because he was about to tear someone's throat out. That demon child Ciel sitting in front of him in Advanced Calc was driving him up a wall. Again.

Ever since his outwardly display of arrogance and sheer stupidity, Ciel had taken to mumbling to himself angrily, just loud enough for Trent to hear. Trent was quite used to this behavior by now, but what really drove him crazy was when Ciel finally recognized Trent and began making those snide remarks to _him_ as if it were some inside joke.

Granted, once you figured out that demon-kid's sense of humor, you might find his jokes kind of funny too. But what pissed Trent off was that the "idiot questions" Ciel was making fun of were the ones Trent was fervently struggling to write down in his notebook before the professor continued the lecture that was lazily passing right over his head!

When Ciel turned to Trent for the third time, Krysta had slumped over her desk, ready to give up (this teacher spoke with a heavy Indian accent and he wrote nonsense on the board for two hours, stopping only to answer questions that the smarter kids in class shouted out based on what they managed to interperet. How Ciel was even _comprehending_ this bull was beyond Trent).

"This is so simple," Ciel whispered, jokingly. "You just take the square root of the—"

"Ciel," Trent snapped, scribbling away to copy down the equation that magically appeared on the chalkboard. "Shut it."

Ciel eyed Trent for a long period of time. Trent only looked back up at the earl for a small second, and that was only a side effect of having to sit up and fix the hem of his skirt (the day started out a girl day but his mood swayed by lunchtime and he was too lazy to put on any gender-identifying clothes. Plus Casey liked the outfit and makeup he put on this morning and he wasn't about to make any alterations to his wardrobe if what he had on was enough to make the woman swoon).

"No," Ciel gasped, raising an eyebrow. The corner of his mouth upturned slightly as if Trent were joking. "You don't get this either?"

"Shut it, Demon-brat," Trent whispered harshly back. To the side, Krysta looked up, her dark eyes glazed over in despair.

"I am going to die," she groaned.

"No you won't," Trent sighed, blocking Ciel out of his mind for a moment. "Just copy my notes after class, you'll be fine."

"Am I the only one who understands this?" Ciel whispered in utter shock.

"Apparently!" Trent snapped back. "I don't even know how since you're always turning to me and trying to joke about the rest of us!"

Ciel deflated slightly, his large blue eye narrowing in thought. He puckered his cheeks like a little kid for a moment before he said, "That's interesting. Perhaps I'm just…"

"A demon-brat?" Trent snapped sarcastically. Ciel eyed Trent suspiciously, almost in warning.

"You certainly like to call me that," Ciel noted. Trent rolled his eyes.

"It suits you, trust me," he retorted.

This part is where Trent's intimidation factor comes in handy. He just knew Ciel was about to continue the argument. Possibly even make a threat back at Trent. But as he opened his mouth, one sharp look from Trent quickly clamped the kid's jaw shut again. Trent really didn't understand what being on a boy day did to his aura. He was in a skirt and looked feminine enough, but any time on a girl day that he tried "the look" or any other method that could shut the kid up, Ciel would just roll his eyes and say, "careful, you might hurt yourself with those daggers in your eyes" or something of the like. But boy days? Totally different story. Even with lipstick on!

It wasn't long after that exchange when class ended. Krysta immediately shot to her feet and collapsed onto Trent, letting out an exasperated groan.

"This class is going to kill me!" she whaled, as per usual. Trent awkwardly attempted to pat the woman's back.

"You got an B on the quiz didn't you?" Trent reminded her. "Clearly it hasn't done you in yet."

"That's easy for you to say!" Krysta's hands flew in the air. "You actually understand what's happening!"

Trent rolled his eyes at his friend, not really sure what else to do about the basket case. Poor thing always felt like this at the end of class and yet she was still maintaining a B. Clearly she was understanding something.

Behind them, Ciel sighed and said, "Well, if you two are finished, I am meeting Sebastian and Artemis now. Care to come along?"

Trent and Krysta exchanged glances. As annoying as Ciel was, Trent had to admit that he was a bright kid. And also pretty okay once you got over the chills that ran up your spine every time you looked at him as well as his god-awful sense of humor. Granted, Trent wasn't sure if Ciel had grown on him because Trent too was a weirdo that tended to put some people off or because Ciel suddenly started hanging around Sebastian now that he and Artie were dating. Actually, Trent didn't even start seeing Sebastian around until Artie brought him to church three weeks prior (an apparently they _kissed_ afterwards and Artie didn't tell them, the bitch!) and it wasn't until earlier this week when Sebastian presented a bouquet of lilies, a box of chocolates, and a request to pursue a romantic relationship with her.

Of course, Artie nearly fainted (but really, how she didn't see this coming was beyond Trent. Because really, they had been on a date every single weekend and Sebastian had been fully inducted into their friend group and he saw Artie and Madeline both every single day), but in any case, Trent's point was that Ciel was also in the process of initiation with their group, granted it was probably incorrect of Trent to say that this started ever since they were dating because Ciel started hanging around after their first date, and seemed to have been working behaving like a normal human being. By this point, most everyone seemed pretty okay with the kid. Although he was still fourteen and apparently he and Maddie _still_ couldn't stand each other. But even then, he stopped picking fights with Maddie after Sebastian gave Artie the flowers a few days before.

Ugh. And he picked Lilies. _Lilies._ Artie loved lilies, but she clearly didn't get the reference behind Sebastian's flower choice just yet and it _killed_ Trent on the inside to see the exchange because he _knew_ the reference Sebastian was making, oh god. But it was just so perfect. It was heart-wrenchingly beautiful.

But really, Sebastian was perfect for Artie. It was painful and fantastic all at the same time. Trent half-wondered if this is what Artie thought of him and Casey, but there was no way he could ask her about that. Not now at least. In any case, Sebastian was freaking classy. Artie called it Augustinian of the man, but Trent thought of it as just pure Sebastian.

Anyway, the three walked over to the café as Ciel and Krysta struggled to make small talk (Krysta was another one that Ciel still rubbed the wrong way, but he was getting better with her. He was certainly farther along with Krysta than with Madeline, poor kid).

When they walked into the café, Madeline was already there reading through one of her textbooks. She looked up and smiled, her golden curls bouncing as she cheered, "Hey Trent! Hey Krysta!"

"Hey kiddo!" Krysta waved back. Madeline smiled for a moment before her eyes fell on Ciel. Oh, her expression was priceless when she saw him. You could tell that she was trying so hard to keep her smile but the disdain for the demon-kid was so great her lips fell to a flat line in front of gritted teeth instead.

"Hey, Ciel," she said, slightly less cheerfully.

"Madeline," Ciel nodded back. He didn't hide his disdain for the girl and soon the glare from his blue eye reflected from her green ones. The tension didn't last long because Artie rolled through the door of the café only seconds later with Ashley at her haunches (no, really, she _rolled_. As in, she made it to the door but didn't want to take her hands out of her pockets to push it open, so she rammed into it with her shoulder to push it open then kind of side-stepped as she spun around through the entrance to the café. It was an Artie-norm, to say the least).

Ashley laughed as Artie accidentally knocked over a chair as a result of her entrance. "Do you always have to do that?" she teased.

"Well, my hands were in my pockets!" Artie defended.

"And taking them out of your pockets is too much work?" Ashley continued to tease. Those two had a funny relationship. Their banter was purely tongue-and-cheek, but if you didn't know better, you might think that Artie and Ashley were always criticizing and arguing with each other, even though they weren't. Actually, Artie did that wit Krysta and Casey too. They all just had that sense of humor, especially when Artie was doing something weird. They often joked about her inherent awkwardness, which, though Trent could see where they might be coming from, he didn't quite get the humor in it. Yeah, Artie was funny and she did funny shit, but he didn't see the awkward part in it all. Actually, he didn't think Sebastian did either, which might be why the guy was so attracted to Artie.

"When it's this cold? Yes! And my face was closer to the door anyway!" Artie giggled.

"Smooth," Krysta chimed in as Artie and Ashley bounced towards the other four. Artie tripped over her pant leg and stumbled forward, but somehow managed to catch herself before falling on top of Ciel.

"Sorry!" she squealed, unable to control her laughter.

"Honestly, how you go about being so clumsy without hurting yourself I will never know!" Ciel groaned. Artie glared at the kid before she flicked the side of his head, causing the others to laugh and Ciel to force down a bemused smile.

Trent turned around right as Sebastian and Casey walked in. Sebastian was classy as always and Casey…oh, beautiful Casey. Trent's heart melted as that ginger angel skipped up to him and wrapped her long, thin arms around Trent's neck.

"Hey, Handsome!" Casey grinned as she pecked him on the lips. Trent giggled in response.

"How can you always tell?" he asked. "I'm in a skirt!"

"It's the look you get," Casey giggled. "I can just tell."

Trent raised his eyebrows before he shared a passionate kiss with Casey, only to be yelled at teasingly by their loud friends. Trent and Casey broke apart, ready to defend their public display of affection but were caught off guard to find only Ashley and Madeline scolding the couple. Meanwhile, Krysta was smacking Sebastian, shouting, "Stop! Being! So! Perfect!"

"What? I'm just simply one hell of a—"

"Sebastian, that doesn't work in this context! Don't even try it!" Ciel groaned, smacking the palm of his hand to his face. Sebastian, in response deflated slightly.

"I was going to say one hell of a boyfriend…though I admit that does sound a little smug on my behalf," he admitted.

Artie placed a hand on her hip and rolled her eyes, "Be as smug as you like, Augustus."

At that, Sebastian frowned, looking almost like a sad puppy before calmly proclaiming, "But I have both of my legs!"

"You did read it!" Artie cheered. "Did you cry?"

Sebastian was silent.

"Oh goodness, you did, didn't you!"

"It was a good book, I have to say. Reminded me of a modern Romeo and Juliet, granted it was the cancer that tore the two apart in the end, not their families' feuding coupled with blatantly poor decisions," Sebastian explained.

"And you cried through the whole damn thing, didn't you!"

"Artemis Grace, I am not prone to crying."

"You know, the movie for it is coming out this summer, we should go see it."

Sebastian's normally poised posture sagged suddenly as he let out a faint little groan, trying to hide the fact that his chances of surviving through that movie were more than dismal.

Trent shook his head, holding tightly onto Casey who saved Artie's boyfriend by shouting, "Artie, are we going to pick up the little monsters tomorrow night?"

That distracted Artie enough to press Sebastian any further. She looked over at Casey, her eyes shifting to the ceiling for a moment, trying to remember what day tomorrow was before a light bulb lit up in the back of her mind and she nodded, "Yeah! At the train station, right?"

"Yep," Casey answered. "I believe Nicole's train is supposed to arrive at four, so if we leave right as class gets out we should make it to the station in time."

"Yeah, and we can go to dinner before the boys get here because their train doesn't arrive until seven," Artie answered.

"Seven? That's late."

"Well, thanks to the snow days, they have school tomorrow and Mom didn't let them skip."

Trent practically bounced with excitement as she looked at Casey, interrupting the conversation to ask, "Nicole's coming? Is she staying with us?"

"Who are you all talking about?" Ciel asked.

"This weekend is Sibling's weekend," Artie answered. "The school invites our siblings to come visit and they host different events for them."

"Or we just take them to the frats," Krysta added. "Though I think they banned the houses from hosting any parties this weekend so it'll just be off campus stuff for anyone who's dumb enough to go over there."

"Like Sophie," Madeline grumbled, crossing her arms. Ever since the weekend at the start of the semester when Trent and Artie had to pick up a sick Maddie from one of those parties Sophie drug her too, Maddie and Sophie had not been on speaking terms. Granted, that was a huge relief for Artie, but even thinking of off campus parties or Sophie put the poor freshman in a sour mood.

"Anyway, Casey's little sister and my brothers are coming up to visit for it this weekend," Artie explained. She then looked at Sebastian before he could ask the question and said, "And yes, they are excited to meet you and can't wait to give you hell."

Sebastian chuckled that and purred, "I'd like to see them try."

Trent watched as the two shared a kiss before promptly being teased by everyone else. Every time he looked at Sebastian, all he could think of were those lilies he gave Artie.

Oh, how it hurt actually knowing the hidden meaning behind the gesture.

* * *

**Artie**

Of course, Trent went with us to greet his future sister-in-law, and Nicole was almost more excited to see him than her actual sister. I think Trent just fascinated the fifteen-year-old. She was one of those genuinely curious kids from a fairly conservative home so while Casey's parents were at first devastated by the news of Casey's sexuality (and her pansexual datefriend), Nicole was, and has ever since been, loaded with questions. Not to mention, Trent had this incredible patience and ability to bond with younger kids that almost seemed the exact opposite of his usual no-nonsense personality. All kids, whether they were babies or as old as Madeline, seemed to gravitate towards Trent and it was absolutely adorable.

What struck me the most, however, was Nicole's apparent lack of fear of asking any question that popped into her mind. In fact, she was even asking Trent about his compressor when my brothers' train arrived.

I left the trio to go to the platform and greet them. I don't know how I missed her, but as I caught sight of Chris's messy hair when I bumped into an Indian woman with long white hair.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" I shrieked as I recoiled from the impact. The woman, who seemed considerably wealthy, what with the slim black dress and fur coat, merely shook her head and smiled politely.

"No, no, it's my fault, I wasn't watching where I was walking," she said kindly…in a strangely Brittish accent. "Forgive me."

"I guess it was an accident on both our parts," I said, forcing a friendly smile. I gazed into her deep blue eyes and felt a distinct chill run up my spine. It was the same chill I experienced when I met Ciel and I was sure I felt it at least one other time, perhaps towards the beginning of the semester, but it wasn't until I looked at the bizarre coloring on the woman when the possible explanation for these uneasy feelings struck me. There were only two reasons why I experienced these chills and why the woman looked so different.

One: These people may just be weird and the woman may have just died her hair and wore colored eye contacts.

Or Two: they weren't human.

As soon as the second possibility struck my mind, however, I had to shake the thought off. No, that was crazy. And there was no reason for me to feel so unnerved. Okay, maybe there was a third option:

I was just unbelievably stressed and my body was having weird reflexes to people lately.

That was a lot more probable, especially considering that I was neck-deep in my clinicals by this point in the semester.

The woman smiled and nodded, "Of course. If you'll excuse me." And with that, we parted ways and I continued forward to hug both my little brothers.

Chris luckily had a three-day weekend that made it possible for him to visit me this year and Tristan never missed a chance to come see me in college, and being able to see my little brothers made me the happiest older sister in the world. But of course, it wasn't me the boys were excited to see.

"So when are we going to meet Sebastian?" Tristan asked, bouncing jubilantly.

I couldn't help but giggle, "Calm down, you'll meet him tomorrow morning. We're going to go visit him and his friend Ciel. I believe I even put in a request for him to make a certain someone's favorite chocolate chip pancakes."

Tristan's face lit up like a two-year-old but Chris scoffed, trying to play the cool college kid and questioned, "He's just making that from a box, probably, Tristan."

"Nope," I corrected. "Everything he cooks is made from scratch. And he cooks better than I do."

"You're kidding me," Chris's jaw dropped, trying to hide his salivation. Okay, before I continue, the thing with the chocolate chip pancakes is that my mom's dad was a gourmet chef and my mom helped out a lot in the restaurant they owned when she was growing up. End result: Mom makes everything from scratch and her pancakes are buttery slices of heaven. And also her kids are extremely picky eaters. We don't accept anything out of the box, and our cooking is getting up there in her ranks too. So to say that anyone had cooking skills that could possibly outcompete either myself or my mom…woah, watch out, taste buds.

"Not at all," I said, placing my arms around my brothers' shoulders. I then helped them grab their bags as we met up with Trent, Casey, and Nicole to return to our cars.

And that's when I saw him.

We hadn't left the train station yet so there was enough light to make out his pale figure. His dark, messy hair looked as if he had attempted to comb it back but it still fell forward. His jaw was angular and his mouth fixated in a scowl. That all too familiar chill ran up my spine. A few steps behind him was the Indian woman I bumped into earlier. She crossed her arms and waited expectantly as the man stepped forward. He almost reminded me of Sebastian. Almost. Except he seemed terribly creepy and did _not_ have any sort of welcoming presence.

And behind the rims of his glasses rested piercing golden eyes.

I drew in a sharp gasp as I recognized those eyes. It was the man Trent and I ran into the night Madeline got sick at that party.

"Artie," Trent whispered, instinctively reaching for Casey's hand and my arm.

"I know," I whispered back.

"No, Artie," Trent whispered again. "Get out of here."

That caught me even more off guard than the man. "What?" I asked, glancing over at Trent, but it was too late for me to even react in time. The man was already advancing on us.

"Excuse me," the man asked. He reached out with a gloved hand in what I thought was a gesture for a handshake, but he instead lifted it to push his glasses up his nose. "You are Artemis Grace Thomas, correct?"

My chest felt hollow.

I don't know why the stranger had me so unnerved, but I just stood there, trembling. Remember when I suspected that the chills running up my spine had to do with some inhuman element in the situation?

Well, right then, I definitely knew that these strangers were not human.

The stranger sighed and said, "Of course you are. I recognize that face anywhere. Forgive me for my rudeness but my name is Claude Faustus." He then gestured to the Indian woman who stepped forward.

"And I am Hannah Anafeloz," the woman introduced. I nodded my head numbly. "Forgive us for the sudden intrusion, we just wished to speak with you, Artemis."

"And how do you know me?" I dared to ask. Trent responded to me with a painful squeeze of my bicep.

"Artie, get the hell out of here," he warned in a low voice, not even bothering to whisper.

"Trent, do you know these people?" Casey whispered. Before Trent could answer, Hannah spoke up.

"You, young woman, remind me of an angel from long ago," the woman mused. Trent stiffened in response.

"That's nice," Trent retorted. "But I'm not a woman, in case you couldn't tell. I just happen to be living in a feminine body. Now if you'll excuse us, we have somewhere to be."

"Oh, you are not going anywhere," Claude interjected. "At least, not with Artemis if you intend to leave right this moment. You may, however, leave when we are done speaking with her."

"Okay, fine," I said in a low voice. "What do you want? And could you please tell me how you know my name?"

"Of course," Claude nodded, almost politely. "Artemis, we simply wish to speak with you about your mate."

My mind all but shut down at that.

"M-my _what_?" I spat.

"Sebastian Michaelis," Claude specified. "You see, Hannah and I have known your mate for quite some time and we are seeking a certain…payment from him. You could say there is a payment we wish to return before he meets his demise and we were hoping you could assist us."

My jaw practically dropped to the floor. For one, I had no idea what they were talking about. For another…mate? …_demise?_

"I'm sorry, but what?" I gasped. "What demise? And what do you mean my mate? We literally just started dating!"

"_Artie_!" Trent hissed under his breath as I caught myself. I knew it was dangerous to reveal any information about myself to people this suspicious, but something about the way Trent panicked at my mentioning of my relationship with Sebastian told me that I had just made one of the biggest mistakes of my life.

Claude's and Hannah's eyes widened as they exchanged a glance before a bright smile spread across Hannah's lips and she said, "Oh goodness, you really don't know do you."

"Know what?" I asked in a low voice, backing away from them. I had been instinctively putting myself between these strangers and my brothers, but by this point I wanted nothing more than to hide them and myself away from the world forever.

"She's still human," Claude announced. I felt my stomach drop. Claude then too smiled. "This will be much easier than expected."

Suddenly, all the lights in the train station dimmed and it almost looked as if the shadows on the walls were moving freely for the soul purpose of covering them. I couldn't tell if it was just me, but I could have sworn I heard a series of hissing.

In my ear, there was an ominous series of whispers all chanting: "_The darrkessssst maaaaate_."

Claude sighed, and rubbed his temples, "Honestly, you Underlings have no control of your appetites. Hannah, take care of this before one of them devours her."

"Of course," Hannah said and then, in less time than it takes to blink, she had advanced on me and grasped tightly onto my neck. I swear she was faster than a Weeping Angel. I didn't even think that was possible.

My friends and brothers all screamed and tried to fight back, but red-skinned, devil-like creatures sprung forth from the shadows on Claude's command and restrained them, and before the constriction of my airways blocked out all my senses, I managed to hear Claude's stern voice shout: "Do _not_ eat their souls just yet!"

Just yet.

That still meant they were going to eat their souls.

In a brief moment of clarity before panic and lack of oxygen took over, everything suddenly made sense: the red-skinned creatures, the chills up my spine, even the pentagram tattoo on Sebastian's hand.

Demons.

I don't know who, or what was a demon, I didn't know. All I knew was that it related to demons. I remember talking about the witch-trials and the stories of Faustian contracts in the Middle Ages during my Theology class last semester. I wrote the idea off as some wise tale made up due to the lack of education at the time. The thought of someone not only turning away from God but also actively seeking out the Devil to make some sort of pact with hell seemed unreal to me. And now…I didn't know what to think.

"Sebas…!" I managed to choke out.

In the midst of my struggling, Hannah used her free hand to stroke my cheek, "Come now, darling, we won't kill you yet. We just need a message sent to that darling mate of yours."

Hannah's blue eyes turned a vibrant red as she smiled, and that vision was the last thing my senses could recognize before the darkness drowned me.

* * *

**Welp. A cliffhanger. Hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget to write a review in that little box at the bottom!**


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